My Tips: Button yer Hole

Happy Friday the 13th! Perhaps take today to consider how LUCKY you would be to own a black cat. I fell in love with this video and I think everyone should consider adopting a black cat (or dog!) from their local shelter! My family used to have a black shelter cat and she was a regular little nutball.

In non-cat-related news, today we are going to cover how to sew on a button. It is SO easy and such a key thing to learn! I have this set of pink elephant jammies that I made in high school sewing class (they are my pride and joy!) and despite being 10 years old, they still have all their buttons! Except one has been threatening to leave the gang for the past month or so and I thought it would be a good lesson to show how to sew it back on!

I ripped it off (put up quite a fight too- I wonder how long it could have held on) and pulled out the old thread.

1. Cut a long piece of thread, much longer than you would expect- you want that button on good! Line up your button and lay the button hole over it to make sure it is in the proper place. This is key when you don't have an old button spot to work with. Stick your needle through the bottom layer, button, and top layer to ensure proper alignment.

2. Remove top layer, so you are only working with the material on the button side. We just had it there for alignment. Pick your button pattern and move your needle up and down through the button. You can do an X, or two lines (horizontal or vertical), or maybe some mix therein! Since my outfit was originally with vertical lines, I did that again.

The trick here is to work pretty loosely. You don't want it on too tight because the button hole needs to slip easily around it!

3. Once you have gone up and down through your button many times (I did about 6-7 times), poke your needle up from the bottom to the top, but don't go through the button this time. Wrap around the thread between the material and the button about 10 times. This will keep zee button strong!

4. Once completed, push your needle back through to the underside of the material. Do a few back-stitches to secure, and snip the thread! For back-stitching, you make a small stitch (don't pick up a lot of material) and as you pull it, loop back through the loop created in the thread to make a knot.

And you're done!

Have a great weekend! I will be back next week with some new projects and an update on my Anthralin treatment (spoiler alert: it has been messy and weird).