Sewing and mending are such important frugal skills. You can really save a ton of money by making minor clothing repairs yourself instead of paying a tailor or seamstress to do it for you!
When you know you have the skill to make a minor repair, you can successfully haggle with a clerk or manager for a few dollars off of that item at a department store that is missing a button (but has the replacement button still sewn in the seam) or that has a torn seam.
You can also buy thrift and garage sale items with confidence knowing you can replace all of those horrible 1980’s large plastic buttons with something more suitable or take up that hem yourself. Cost saving measures all!
In my last “How to” sewing post I showed a video from VideoJug.com on “How to Mend a Torn Seam“. This week I have spent an inordinate amount of my stage managing time this sewing buttons back onto costumes. Actors do a lot of quick changes and can be a little rough! Since buttons have been on my mind I thought that “How to Sew On a Button” would be an appropriate video tutorial to show today:
(Note: you have to click on the video to activate it, then click on the play button to start playing the video)
VideoJug: How To Sew On A Button
As a side note, this video shows how to sewing a button on to a coat,where the button has to pass through thick fabric. They show the technique of leaving a “shank” or “neck” out of the thread so that the button is not flat against the fabric. Sometimes, such as with a dress shirt, you will be sewing your button flush against the fabric. I refer you to this tutorial on “Tutorials.com”-to see the directions for both a flush and shanked button.
This is very helpful. I’ll never forget the time, as a newlywed, I was with my mother-in-law and tried to sew a button on my husband’s pants. She just laughed at me and wondered where I’d learned how to do it. It was atrocious, to say the least. LOL
I’m still not that great at it, so this tutorial is wonderful!
This reminds me I need to resew the buttons on my winter coat before they all fall off! One trick to make a ‘shank’ is to put a toothpick under the button, and sew over it. When you pull the toothpick out, the button is nicely spaced.