Heavens to Betsy! ...the exclamations of a small town girl: Buttons and non buttons

My great Aunt Margaret died at the beginning of the year. She was my dads dads sister. She moved down to Poole with Uncle Ted the year I was born and spent most of her time travelling, entertaining and socialising (or sometimes all three). I don't really know much about my dads side of the family but the snippets I've heared about Margaret are that she was a lot of fun. Margaret and Ted used to socialise a lot and loved to have bridge parties. Ted died some years ago and they didn't have any children so it's been my dads job to sort through her flat. It's a very sixties decorated two bed place in an apartment block with a private swimming pool where the residents used to have pool parties.
So yesterday I got around to sorting through a big box dad had dropped round, knowing I like sewing he gave me all her sewing stuff.
There's quite a bit to blog about so I thought I'd do it in sections so as not to overwhelm. I hope you find these things as interesting as I do. They reflect both Margaret's history and that of sewing at the same time.

There was a box of loose buttons and a small tin by Players Tobacco.

I like it when you find things other than buttons in button boxes, it's like an administrative error in the filing system. If it's small and has no real place to live, or is button shaped it will end up in the button box. Non button items I found in Margaret's button box are a very glam and very tiny retractable tape measure, two thimbles (one of which is from Blackpool Hospital, where I was born. She must have used it to do sewing when she was in there once) and a tiny china arm from an ornament.

Margaret loved to shop, looking the part at any social occasion. She had huge wardrobes full of clothes, shoes, hats and jewellery. Here is a whole stash of spare buttons from the clothes she'd bought over the years. Fancy keeping them all this time.