往時香港的花紐師傅，從長衫師傅或店舖接到訂單，除了會收到製作花紐所需的緄邊布料，很多時還會收到要訂製花紐的長衫布碎一塊。有了這塊布碎，花紐師傅可以根據布料的顏色，在替花紐填芯時選擇與之相襯的顏色，確保花紐的用色與長衫和諧一致。

時至今日，這種特別訂製花紐的需求已經非常少。而且，現今手機拍照、發送照片都十分方便，能夠收到一塊實物布碎來替花紐配色的機會就更加難得！透過電腦、手機屏幕看布料照片來配色，即使小心翼翼，最終也只能憑直覺來決定所用的顏色，很難做到百分百與布料的色調完全匹配，色調不違和就已經很不錯了。所以，這次收到行家寄來的材料和布碎，可以一邊做花紐，一邊琢磨可用的顏色，感覺特別爽！

Back in the old days in Hong Kong, when a flower buttons craftswoman received an order from a cheongsam dressmaker, besides getting the silk fabric which is used for the cheongsam’s binding, most of the time she would also receive a sample piece of cheongsam fabric. The craftswoman would base on this small piece of sample, select the decorative parts’ colours of the flower-buttons, so that the flower-button colour tone would perfectly match the cheongsam.

Nowadays, this kind of custom order is getting rare. And with the help of technology, that piece of sample fabric is often replaced by a digital image. To be able to work with a real piece of sample fabric becomes a “luxury”. Off white, silver white, snow white, cream white…… slight change of shades could change the feeling of the flower buttons. Without a real piece of fabric, making the decision is actually not easy, and most of the time we can just follow our gut feeling.