Button Up
By JENNIFER VOGELSONG
For Smart
Don’t let a missing button stop you from wearing your favorite shirt. Grab a needle and thread and get mending. Bob Heiner, owner of Bob’s Tailor Shop on East Market Street in York, offers these easy steps to sew on a button:
1. Remove about 12 inches of thread from the spool and thread it through the needle. (Select a color of thread that is close to the color of the garment.)
2. Fold the length of thread so that the two ends meet and tie the two strands of thread together with a knot at the end. Snip off excess thread below the knot.
3. Beginning on the outside of the fabric, draw the thread first through the fabric to form one stitch, then up through one hole in the button and down through the other and back through the fabric. Repeat with the same two holes.
4. Repeat the process with the other two holes in the button, at least twice.
5. Tug on the button to make sure it isn’t too tightly stitched on, or too loose. “If it’s too tight, it will pucker the material; if it’s too loose, you might as well start all over,” Heiner said. Learning to get it just right is something that can’t really be taught. “That’s what you might call trial by error.”
6. Bring needle and thread to the right side under button. Then wrap some of the excess thread around the stitching between the button and the fabric, three to six times.
7. Poke the needle through the stem created between the button and the fabric and feed it back two or three times. Then snip off excess thread.
SMART TIPPlace a toothpick on top of a button before sewing it on. Stitch over the toothpick and pull it out when you're finished. This will kep you from sewing the button too tightly to the fabric and give it space to move a bit.
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