Here's a guide to improving your skills by learning to fix a button on your favourite shirt and pants

#editorial

Don't throw away your clothes: learn how to fix a button!

26th AUG '22

5 minutes

Rather than throwing out that shirt missing a button or that pair pants whose button popped off, look at this quick guide on how to fix a button. Give that shirt or that pair of pants another life with this easy guide!

Words by Sara Campidelli

Photocredits: Thirdman

How many times did it happen that your favorite shirt and pants suddenly miss a button? This might be one of the most common issues that come with wearing our favorite clothes.

This clearly uncomfortable situation can lead us away from wearing our shirts and pants and leave us in front of our closet hoping the buttons will fix themselves out of magic. Or even worse, we throw them out!

If you think that going to a tailor is not what you are looking for, you can learn to fix buttons by yourself! IFIXIT helped us build the perfect guide on how to fix a button on shirts and pants.

Easy guide on how to fix a button on a shirt

Missing buttons on shirts are no news. It happens all the time!

When you see a button starting to get loose, it is always better to remove it and secure it somewhere. If you lose it, you are probably going to have to replace it with a different one.

Of course, sometimes mismatched buttons are cool, but it surely does not suit all shirt types. No worries though: normally, shirts are sold with a spare button stitched to the care label, or attached to the hangtag in a mini envelope.

Photocredits: Thirdman

When you are ready to learn how to fix your button, make sure you have the following repair tools:

- A spare button;

- Thread matching with fabric or with the other buttons’ thread;

- Needle;

- Fabric chalk or pencil.

Let’s go through the steps of this easy guide to fix your button.

1. Prepare needle and thread:

- Unravel about an arm length out of thread.

- Insert the thread into the needle hole and create two ends in equal length.

- Knot the ends tight with a double knot.

2. Find the button position:

- Place the shirt placket with buttonholes above the placket with buttons.

- Mark with the chalk the position of your missing button through the buttonhole.

3. Fix the button:

- Poke the needle through the area marked with chalk, starting from the underside of the shirt fabric. Pull the thread all the way to the knot.

- Send the needle through one of the holes in the button, then onto the hole across it without going through the fabric.

- Push the needle through the fabric, pulling all the way until the button lies flat on the fabric.

- Repeat the same actions by threading the needle through the other two holes.

- Keep repeating this threading pattern for about 10-12 times.

4. Securing the button:

- Finish at the underside of the fabric, by pushing the needle across the loops of thread created by your seam without catching the fabric.

- Do not pull the thread all the way, stop about halfway creating a loop with the thread.

- Draw the needle through the loop and pull tight.

- Repeat these actions one more time.

- Now your button is secure: you can clip the ends of your thread off.

Picture by Eugenia Shustikova

Easy guide on how to fix a button on pants

Depending on the style of your pants, you will need to approach the repair in a different way.

If your pants have a regular button you can follow the same procedure described above for shirts. If the button has two holes instead of four you can keep sending the needle through the same holes and keep following the pattern.

Even when your pants have a shank button, like in jeans,we can repair them ourselves! In this case not all jeans are sold with a spare shank button, so you might have to buy a new one in case the original goes missing. The repair procedure and tools are very different from a standard fix a button.

For the repair you will need:

- A complete shank + tack

- A hammer (yes you read it right)

1. Prepare your pants:

- Place your pants on a sturdy work table.

- Unzip the fly and flip the waistband to show the hole where the shank button went missing.

2. Fix your shank button:

- Place the tack (the pin that closes the shank) through the hole in the inside of the waistband. The tip will show on the front of the waistband.

- If the hole is too large and the whole tack goes through, please create a new hole not too far from the original one. To do this you can pierce the fabric with the tip of your tack or use sharp scissors.

3. Securing the shank button:

- Holding the tack in place, push the shank button onto the tip of the tack to join them together.

- And here’s where the hammer comes to play: place a board over the shank and hit with the hammer to secure the shank to the tack.

Take always this guide with you: it is worth trying to repair our clothes, rather than throwing them away. Sometimes repairing is easier than we think and it can help extend the lifetime of our shirts and pants. There are no more secrets for you on how to fix a button: go ahead, try it yourself and share the knowledge with your friends!