Instructions for Recreating Blackened Bone Buttons
Bone buttons were a common utility button during the middle part of the 19th century. Their durability allowed them to be used by not just the civilian market, but also the United States military. A variation of bone buttons that were used during the Civil War were blackened. These blackened bone buttons have been observed on surviving historic civilian and military clothing from the period, such as shirts. Blackened bone buttons also appear on examples of U.S. military shelter tents (pup tents).
Blackened bone buttons are what were called for by the United States Sanitary Commission in their nationally distributed 1864 wool shirt and drawers instructions. At the time of its publication, the patterns had been in use since 1862 by a New England chapter of the organization.
These instructions were studied in-depth by Civil War Patterns who recreated these garments in multiple sizes for release in the fall of 2023. Without a commercial supplier of reproduction black bone buttons, Civil War Patterns explored historic black dye recipes and adapted one to be used in small scale non-commercial production using commonly found ingredients for those constructing reproduction American Civil War garments.