# How do you sew buttons back onto shirts? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 8, 2005, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-sew-buttons-back-onto-shirts/311556 "2005-07-08T03:41:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![cruel\_butterfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5daacb/32.png) [@cruel\_butterfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cruel_butterfly)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2005, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-sew-buttons-back-onto-shirts/311556/21 "2005-07-08T22:26:59Z")
> [@pokey](#): > > \ 900 or so little coke baggies of buttons \ 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2005, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-sew-buttons-back-onto-shirts/311556/22 "2005-07-08T22:54:20Z")
**WhyNot** ’s [cite](http://www.fabriclandwest.com/Notion_basics/Buttons0/sewing_buttons.htm) is great. And I’ve learned from this thread, thought I knew it all! Using a pin or toothpick to raise the button just a little off the fabric is the right way to go. Also you don’t want to pucker the fabric by pulling too tightly or going for Industrial Strength mode. Knot to start sewing: Make a loop at the tail end of the thread that overlaps, ie if the needle is off to the East in your right hand, the tail goes completely around and overlaps (South, East, North, and West) with about 1/4" sticking out to the West for a 1/2" loop. You have this pinched in your left hand. Now you rub your left thumb & forefinger (the pinch digits) a little in just one direction, to sort of spin the tail through the loop. The good thing here is, you don’t have to be good about it, or sure that the tail has gone through the loop. Shifting your pinch a little, you pull on the needle end with your right hand, which pulls the slack out of your spun loop, leaving a lump for a knot. You can get a double knot, a knot with a long tail, no knot and have to do it again, but who cares, it took about three seconds. If you don’t like a long tail, snip it off. Finishing-knot: Take two or three at most little stitches just through the shirt fabric, almost on top of each other, to create enough friction for working purposes. That anchors the end of the thread. You will observe a theme here, exemplified by: Not too much. Not too little. Just right. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2005, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-sew-buttons-back-onto-shirts/311556/23 "2005-07-08T23:09:21Z")
> [@UrbanChic](#): > > Here’s what I do: > > 1. Take shirt to tailor/dry cleaner > 2. Pay > 3. Pick-up shirt > > Mind you, my method does take a few days, but there’s usually less cursing involved. See, that’s usually why I end up needing a button sewn on. The dang cleaners! What is it with those people? They gotta snap at least one button off of each one of my shirts? ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2005, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-sew-buttons-back-onto-shirts/311556/24 "2005-07-09T01:37:45Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > 1. Invite woman friend over. (Doesn’t matter if she’s a feminist or not. For some reason, this works with virtually all women.) :dubious: Well, alright, but you do realize this negates your right to refuse to kill big bugs. ---
**Author:** ![CBCD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@CBCD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBCD)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2005, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-sew-buttons-back-onto-shirts/311556/25 "2005-07-09T11:27:14Z")
> [@pokey](#): > > If there are still threads where the button came off, they are your guide. Otherwise, lay the shirt on your knee as if it were buttoned and put a little dot in the buttonhole where the button would be. Then put the button over the dot or the threads. Thread the needle and poke it into the back of the shirt numerous times til it comes out the hole in the button. If the button only has two holes, easy, just sit there and sew with your knees together like my grandma. In one hole, then up through the other. If it has four holes, do them on the diagonal a few times, then switch and do the other diagonal so your stitches make a cross on the face of the button. Make sense? Don’t try to sew it on like a motherfuck or it will be too tight and your shirt will buckle and look weird. Keep it reasonably loose so that it feels like the other buttons do. Not too tight and not too loose. > > Make your last pass of the needle one that faces the back of the shirt. When you tie the thread in a knot and it is too far away from the shirt, keep knotting it closer and closer til you have a knot that’s close to the back of the shirt. Then cut off the extra thread and put the button through the buttonhole. Does it lie right? If not, yank on it a while. Just be happy you were an independent person with his own sewing skills and don’t be so picky if it doesn’t look exactly right. Wash it a few times and maybe it will look better. This is how I was taught in girl guides and it has served me well. You do not make a thread shank? Pray tell, why? ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2005, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-sew-buttons-back-onto-shirts/311556/26 "2005-07-09T11:48:43Z")
> [@CBCD](#): > > You do not make a thread shank? Pray tell, why? I don’t know why \*\*pokey \*\*doesn’t, but I occasionally don’t when the buttonhole’s a bit too lose and the buttons keep coming unbottoned. The extra firmness in the button that’s non-shanked will sometimes keep it more parallel to the fabric and elimate the “floppy-button syndrome” that exacerbates unbuttoning in too large buttonholes. Or I could just get bigger buttons, but then I’d have to replace all of them. ---
**Author:** ![CBCD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@CBCD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBCD)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2005, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-sew-buttons-back-onto-shirts/311556/27 "2005-07-09T13:30:56Z")
Button shanks should always be created when sewing on ‘load-bearing’ buttons on pants, jackets, and coats. Indeed, a button shank on an overcoat is an indication of the quality of the coat. End of sermon. ---
**Author:** ![Dublin11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Dublin11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dublin11)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2005, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-sew-buttons-back-onto-shirts/311556/28 "2005-07-09T13:46:03Z")
Excellent advice both practical and comical! Going back to this bit > [@pokey](#): > > If there are still threads where the button came off, they are your guide. Otherwise, **lay the shirt on your knee** as if it were buttoned and put a little dot in the buttonhole where the button would be Do that in the nude, otherwise you may end up sewing the button _and_ the shirt onto your trousers. (You shouldn’t need to ask me how I know this :smack: ) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-sew-buttons-back-onto-shirts/311556.md?page=1)