Whether you are making your own garment, or just want to replace a loose button on a jacket, knowing how to sew a button on effectively is a relevant skill.
Buttons can be an important finish to a homemade item that takes it from homemade haberdashery to a high-quality piece of clothing that you will be proud to show off.
Sewing buttons onto your chosen garment couldn’t be easier with help from Sewing Direct.
When repairing a garment, or sewing on limited amounts of buttons, it may feel like sewing your buttons by hand will be the easiest choice, rather than getting out your sewing machine.
Sewing buttons professionally by hand takes a little bit of time and some haberdashery tools. You will need buttonhole thread in your chosen colour, scissors, a needle the correct size for your buttonholes, buttons and your article of clothing.
For a raised button with a singular hole on the back, you should stitch in a circular motion through the button and the fabric. These buttons are best stitched by hand.
Sewing buttons with a sewing machine is much faster than hand sewing a button, and can feel more secure. Sewing buttons by hand can be a time-consuming task, so using a sewing machine can be very beneficial when sewing on multiple buttons at a time.
Firstly set up your sewing machine with the correct colour of thread you would like to use, we recommend using a Singer 9985 Quantum Stylist Touch.
Next check your sewing machine accessories to see if you have a button foot, if you don’t there’s no need to worry, it would just make sewing a button on even easier as it prevents your button from moving during sewing. If you don’t have a button foot just remove the presser foot from your machine.
Now you can begin the process of sewing on your buttons!
Line up your buttons and use a fabric pencil to mark their positions. To hold the button in place you can use clear tape to tape your button to the fabric, the needle will easily pierce the tape and it can easily be removed after you have finished.
Some sewing machines have ‘feed dogs’ on the bottom plate of your machine, these can be lowered to prevent your fabric from moving as you stitch your buttons. For sewing machines like the Bernette 77 Sewing Machine, your feed dogs should lower automatically when the button function is selected.
Next, you can choose your stitch, some machines may have only one option for this. For machines that do not have a button function, you can use a regular zig-zag stitch.
Position your needle above the leftmost buttonhole and lower the foot into place to keep your button secure while you stitch. If your needle goes straight through the middle of each hole when tested then you are ready to add your thread and get stitching, sew 8-9 stitches for an expert finish.
Finally, you can remove the tape that was securing your needle and pull the remaining thread through to the back of the button using a hand needle and knot it securely against the fabric.
Once you have done this a few times you will find that you will get faster at the process.
Now you know how to sew a button using a sewing machine.
If you are just starting out on your haberdashery journey, or are looking to update your sewing machine, discover our range of sewing machines at Sewing Direct to help you with your sewing projects.
If you don’t know where to begin then get in touch with our friendly team with any questions or queries you may have.
