L---P----1----+----2----+----3----+@10-4----T----R Sewing on Buttons, Hooks, Eyes, Snaps In each of these cases, you are trying to attach a piece of hardware to your fabric. In each case, your basic tool is the bar tack, but in some cases the bar tack may spread out into overcasting. Most of the time, your bits of hardware will be secured to two or more layers of fabric. Take advantage of the layers to keep your ends out of sight and protected from wear. Buttons: ======== The simplest case is sewing on a two-hole button just for decoration. Secure the end of the thread, come up through one hole of the button, go down through the other, repeat until there are enough threads, turn the work over and make three or four buttonhole stitches over the bar tack on the back, cut the thread close to the knot. If the bar tack on the back is going to show, you may cover it neatly with buttonhole stitches, then slide the end between layers to conceal it. Or whip the tack, or hide back-stitches securing the end under the tack, or whatever suits your fancy, as long as you secure the end of the thread. (Note: if the button is to resist force, tieing the end tightly around the threads on the back is a very good idea.) A four-hole button requires two bar tacks to fill up all the holes. These may be parallel or arranged in an X. You can also arrange three tacks that radiate from one hole to the other three, arrange four tacks in a square, and engage in other fanciful arrangements. For four-hole buttons, I prefer the arrangement in which the threads are parallell on the face of the button, and cross in an X on the back. This catches the maximum possible amount of fabric, so it resists tearing slightly better than other arrangements. To accomplish it, come up in hole A, go down in hole B, come up in hole C, go down in hole D, and repeat until the thickness of the threads is in proportion to the button. Secure the end by working buttonhole stitch over the threads on the back, as suggested for the two- hole button. If you are sewing on a great many flat buttons that are all alike, it may be worth your while to adjust your zig-zag sewing machine to make the bar tack. Drop or cover the feed dogs if possible, set the stitch length to zero, use a special button foot if you have one, an embroidery or zig- zag foot if you don't, always turn the handwheel for the first two stitches, and end by stitching in the same hole three or four times to secure the end of the thread. When you cut the threads, leave them long enough that you can pull the needle thread to the back and tie the threads together. If the button is to be used, there must be space between the button and the fabric, to leave room for the buttonhole. The traditional spacer for achieving this on the sewing machine is an old sewing-machine needle: the thin end for thin fabrics, and the thick end for thick fabrics. A proper button foot will have a notch to help you hold the needle steady. Some shops sell spacers that are placed under the button. The traditional tool when sewing on buttons by hand is a straight pin: lay it over the button at right angles to the proposed stitches after you take the first stitch and before you tighten it; this stitch should hold the pin in place for subsequent stitches. The groove or concavity that keeps the thread from wearing away provides ample clearance for the thin fabric of a shirt or blouse. For thicker fabrics, you may need to use a darning needle, sewing-machine needle, the handle of a seam ripper, or a pencil. If there is a significant distance of thread between the button and the fabric, wrap the thread around it several times to creat a shank under the button. If it's really long, as on a heavy coat, you may want to work baseball stitch over the threads, creating a woven bar. Wrapping is easier, however, and will do nicely if you wind neatly from the button down to the fabric. A flat button, by the way, should never be entirely flat if it is to be pushed through a buttonhole. Threads that stick up above the surface of the button wear away quickly, so buttons intended to be buttoned will have a raised rim, they will be dish-shaped, or they will have a groove between the holes. There are simple drilled disks on the market: some are meant for play-crafts, some are purely ornamental, and some are meant to be sewn underneath other buttons to keep the threads from tearing through the fabric. These last can be replaced with circles cut from felt, if hard buttons on the inside of the garment would be objectionable. The shank of a shank button usually provides enough clearance, so shank buttons are sewn on tightly: come up on one side of the shank, put the needle through the hole in the shank, go down on the other side of the shank, repeat until the spiral of thread is thick enough to secure the button, secure end as above. If the shank is sufficiently long and thin, you may be able to streamline these motions somewhat. There is a hump-backed safety pin meant for securing shank buttons that cannot be cleaned with the garment. A better plan is to work buttonholes on both fronts, then sew the buttons to a strip of ribbon, and button them through the buttonholes on the side where the buttons belong. This is quicker to put on and take off than individual safety pins, it keeps the buttons together when the garment is at the cleaners, and it works for any sort of button. The best plan is to buy washable buttons. Snaps ===== aka poppers, boutons pressions, snap fasteners, grippers, etc. && Hooks and Eyes ============== I dislike the kind of hooks and eyes that are stamped and bent out of sheet metal, and therefore have no experience with them to share with you. The hooks that are bent bits of wire come in sizes from teeny hooks meant for dolls to huge hooks meant for coats and cloaks. My default hook size is #3, which I find quite large enough for a waistband -- though I might prefer a larger size if I didn't always use two hooks to close a waistband. Wire hooks are usually black or shiny metal; the black is inclined to wear off and expose the metal beneath. The best hooks are brass, as steel is apt to rust in the laundry. If you see the yellow of brass on the hooks on a garment you are discarding, salvage the hooks for re-use. Eyes may be a straight bar, with a loop for sewing on at each end (and bent up in the middle to allow roon for the bill of the hook), or they may be a loop of wire with a sewing-loop on each end. The bar-type eyes are hard to find nowadays, but can be replaced by bar tacks that are closely buttonholed. (You can also buy straight eyes by the gross from an on-line vendor. For some strange reason, straight eyes are called "loops", while loops are called "eyes".) If you have eyes left over when you've used up the hooks, save them -- I have a sandwich sack labeled "eyes only" in my fastener stash -- sooner or later, you will want to sew on several eyes for each hook on a garment. Loop-type eyes can also be used for laces where grommets would be too lumpy. && When two hooks are supposed to pull in tandem, as on the waistband of broadfall pants, the question arises: How can I measure accurately enough to divide the pull equally between the hooks when the cloth stretches, the curve of the waist makes the outer band slightly longer than the inner band, and you can't even *see* the difference between too loose and too tight? And the answer to the question is: don't try. Instead, sew all the eyes first. If there is more than one eye per hook, make the sets identical, but the spacing between sets may be arbitrary. Then sew on the hook that is supposed to hide just behind the edge, and can't go anywhere else. Hook this hook into one of its eyes, and hook a loose hook into the corresponding eye of the other set. Have a sharp-but-not-too-sharp #2 pencil handy. Hold the band in the exact position it will occupy when worn -- don't forget that it won't be flat -- pinch the hook with your off hand to keep it from moving, pick up the pencil with your favored hand, poke it through each hole in the hook, and twist to make a dot. Then unhook everything, hold the loose hook so that you can see the dots through its holes, and sew it on. && EOF