Buttons! but no halloween sewing

so i haven't made much progress on the sewing front. this weekend i got zero sewing done because i went camping in the mountains of NC with 5 of my girlfriends. not my idea. i am not outdoorsy at all. but it was to celebrate my friend's 29th birthday and camping is what she wanted to do. i do like smores though. and i don't mind hiking. just sleeping on rocks isn't my thing. i should've had more padding. anyway we were right on the river. beautiful.

we got zero rain while camping, which is good. waking up on a rock is one thing. waking up in a puddle is something else. (we did have a very large tent, in case you were worried.) i hear it rained a lot at home. i hope the rest of you along the east coast weathered the hurricane.

before leaving town on sunday, we stopped in a little antique shop. it wasn't a cheap antique shop, so i had to pass up the cute thread holder that hangs on the wall - too pricey. but i did grab some buttons! which is great because i'm almost to the point where i need to put buttons on my long sleeved alma blouse. yes, i am still working on it. i am soo slowwww. so here are the buttons i picked up:

These are my favorites… 2 with a pearly jade color

and these bunch kinda look like abalone shell with that iridescent quality on the front and then a rough back, but i'm not sure

A week or so ago i grabbed these next 3 button sets from hancock during one of their sales. but i didn't have my fabric with me at the time - always bring your fabric when trying to pick out buttons! now i'm thinking they all might be a little too big for a shirt cuff? 

It also tickled me that the names of the button brands all sound fancy and french. here we have "la petite" (although i think these are too large, ha ha!) and from the antique store we had "la mode" and "le chic." 

i already have a mini stash of random buttons that i've been saving since forever. i always keep the extra buttons that come with store bought items. i promise i'm not a hoarder. but most of these are single buttons and i need a matching pair. one even came with extra matching thread (see the yellow button). the clothing companies must know that their items are not well constructed and that customers should anticipate that the buttons will fall off

so here we have my cuff with several buttons on it. there is one that i prefer. but i'm still thinking that maybe these are not the right size? what do you think? do you like any of these buttons or what would you use?

now i'm going to make another excuse for why this project is taking me so long: the continuous sleeve placket.

i thought it was going to be the death of me. i just could not get it. the corner would get bunched up. finally i read this tutorial and it showed that the seam allowance can taper down closer to the point instead of being the same width. (if that makes sense) it helped me a lot. finally i got it worked out, yippee! that took forever.

but doesn't it look nice! now i hope these sleeves end up being long enough after i attach the cuffs and then attach the sleeves to the bodice. if not, i guess i'm re-cutting longer cuffs. oh and i didn't mention i finally made my first practice buttonholes! my machine has a buttonhole foot and it does them in one step like magic. it's pretty amazing. i was proud of how nice they looked and i barely did anything.

happy halloween everyone! I haven't really dressed up since college, so i don't have a costume. our city does have some crazy halloween parties, but i'm going to sit at home and pass out candy to little kiddies. i love seeing the little costumes. and then later tonight my neighbors are having a bonfire - yay, more smores!

did you do halloween sewing? and any thoughts on button choice for my long sleeved alma? help, help!

P.S. There's an awesome giveaway going on over at megan nielsen's blog - check it out!