Fabric Covered Buttons

Often referred to as “Dorset” buttons, fabric-covered buttons took their initial shape in the English county of Dorset in 1622. The earliest fabric-covered button styles were made from products of local sheep farms, including ram’s horn and sheep hide. By 1700, some of the most popular fabric-covered buttons were made of linen and wool yarns. By the end of the 18th Century, hand-made fabric-covered buttons were replaced by machine-made styles. With the invention of the first cloth-and-thread button machine in 1825, cotton styles of fabric-covered buttons entered the marketplace. Today, fabric-covered buttons are available in every variation from silk to lace to jute.