Russell Gets New Buttons and a Little Jealousy

Russell Williams

In approximately 2008, I sent two shirts and a tie to a friend along with a Matt O'Neill suit pattern.  She used these clothing items as the material to make the three-piece suit, shirt, and tie that Russell Williams wears above.  The shirts and tie were clothing items that were my brother, Ronald's.  Ronald passed away in 2007 shortly after being diagnosed with colon cancer and given a prognosis of only two years to live.  (Which was detrimental to his psyche and longevity.  I do not believe doctors should play God and tell a patient how long they believe s/he has to live unless the patient asks. After the diagnosis and grave prognosis, even with surgery and chemotherapy, and possibly as a result of it, my brother only lived eight months.)

As a forever reminder of him, I wanted one of my dolls to have clothing made from Ronald's clothing, who was always very well dressed.

My friend did a fabulous job with the suit, shirt, and tie, but I have always thought the buttons were not the right size.  After sharing the above picture online recently and mentioning my desire for smaller buttons, I decided to make it happen.

Russell holds a package of buttons containing a color that closely matches the color of his suit.

I took an additional "before" photograph of the jacket and vest before removing the original buttons and sewing on the new ones.

The smaller buttons look much better.  To add more realism, I even added two buttons to each sleeve, seen better in the next image.

Conversation with my husband after the jacket and vest buttons were sewn on:
Me (showing him the jacket):  Do you think I should add buttons to the sleeves?

Him:  No, not really, unless you want to make it look even better.

Me:  I do.  (I had already looked at his jackets and noticed some sleeves have two buttons and some have three).  How many should I add, two or three?

Him:  Two.

Russell models his suit without the jacket with the old, over-sized buttons lying below.

The dapper Russell is pleased with the end result.  I know Ronald would be pleased, too.

***
Additional conversation with Husband the day after Russell received new buttons for his jacket and vest:

Husband (noticing Russell lying on the kitchen counter):  You take care of these dolls better than you do me.  I don't have new buttons on a "new" suit.

Me:  You don't need a new suit and his suit wasn't new.

Husband:  Well, I don't have new buttons on an old suit.

Me:  You don't need new buttons.  His buttons were just too big.

Husband:  If I had a suit that had buttons that were too big, you wouldn't sew new ones on for me.

Me:  Nope, sure wouldn't.  If you didn't sew them on yourself, I'd have the dry cleaners do it for you.

***

I have added images of the shirts and tie used to create Russell's suit, shirt, and tie and some of my favorite pictures of my brother.

Brother's shirt and tie were used to make Russell's suit and tie

The black material from this shirt was used to make Russell's shirt.

Ronald in photo probably taken at a park during the 1970s.

Same 1970s day

Ronald late 1960s/early 70s, dressed in a brown suit and knicker pants with knee-high boots (that I still have).

Ronald, getting his grub on during the 1990s at a girlfriend's house during the holidays.

 Miss you!


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