What a time to be on the planet, amiright? With lockdowns enacted all over the globe, when's a better time than now to open a new shop? I've been making custom apparel since 2013 but with Covid-19 rearing its ugly head, all of my wholesalers had to close up shop. A lot of my custom apparel customers are kids sports teams and schools. Those are also buttoned up (pardon my pun) at the moment. When we do get back to normal, go check it out: dgabrand.com
I've always loved buttons and got very curious how they are made. Turns out, it's pretty simple! Not knowing any better, I bought a cheap machine that was made overseas from that giant online store that starts with an "A" and ends with a "zon." It was really fun to make buttons. My kids and I tore through probably a hundred in the first day. I thought how fun would this be to make a little business out of it? I quickly learned that overseas button machines are NOT the way to go. Supplies were hard to find, they had to be exact sizes or they'd break the machine. It quickly became a pain in the butt(on).
I started researching different machines and landed on a brand (Tecre) that is manufactured right here in the USA! Those machines were a lot more expensive than the overseas ones, but understandably so. Their quality is so much better. Parts are universal for American-made machines with standard sizing. It was just a much better machine with an incredible support team. I was happy that I could contribute in a tiny way to keeping jobs in America.
When I received my Tecre 1.25" machine, I just marveled at it for a bit. It's so beautiful. It's also very compact with a thin profile so it stores easily. But ask me if I have ever stored it? Answer is no I haven't. But I mean, it could store nicely if I wanted to store it.
Here is a smattering of the first buttons we made, It's hard to stop once you get going.
