Sewing Basics Lesson 3: Sew a button

Here is the third in my series of sewing basics–how to sew on a button. Most of the buttons I come across have either four holes, 2 holes or one hole in the back, like a stem.

The video below shows how to sew on a four-holed button.

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Materials

All you need for this project are:

• a button
• some fabric to sew it onto
• needle–a sharp one with a slightly large eye–it has to fit through the hole in the button
• thread–regular sewing thread or buttonhole thread
• scissors for trimming the thread
• optional: needle threader

  

  

Instructions

You can see the demonstration above, of course, but here are the basic steps:

1. Thread the needle. You can use multiple threads of the same length to make the sewing faster. My Mom uses 5 or 6 threads through the needle. You can double the thread, as well. The more threads you use, the fewer times you have to go through the button’s holes.
2. Tie a knot in the thread
3. Holding the button in place, push the needle from the back through one of the button’s holes.
4. Push the needle back through one of the adjacent holes. If you’re sewing button on a piece of clothing or another item where it actually needs to button (rather than being just for decoration) I suggest sewing making the stitches vertical rather than horizontal. I couldn’t find anything about this online, but I looked at all my commercially made shirts and that’s the way all the buttons are attached.
5. Push the needle back up through the hole next to where you put the needle through–one of the empty holes.
6. Push the needle down through the last remaining empty hole.
7. Repeat this same pattern until the button feels secure.
8. Knot the thread and cut.

A couple more thoughts about sewing buttons

You don’t want to sew the button too tightly against the fabric–especially with smaller buttons, if it’s sewn too tightly, it might not stay in the buttonhole. Some people put a toothpick or matchstick under the threads on the front of the button to make sure it’s not too tight.

Also, a two-hole button is sewn exactly the same way, except you go around and around between the two holes.

For more sewing basics, see Sewing Basics 1–Choosing the right needle

and Sewing Basics 2–the running stitch.