Which Button is Best?
ZJ HumbachDescription
Buttons are not only fun to collect, but they are great closures to use on shirts, jackets, pillow backs and other garment or home decor items. ZJ Humbach shares some helpful information about several common types of button including when they are typically used and how to sew them in place.
Button Types
If you are sewing a garment from a pattern, odds are there will be suggested buttons recommended on the pattern or some other guideline with tips for selecting buttons. If you are designing your own pattern you get to choose what kind of buttons you prefer. ZJ shows several common button choices including small and large two and four hole buttons. She explains that four hole buttons are generally used on menswear such as shirt and jackets, as well as on other garments where the button could potentially be under repeated stress. She then explains that two hole buttons are used where not as much stress is going to be applied to the button, so on garments made from thinner fabric. ZJ also explains that there is another popular type of button known as a shank button. She explains what makes it different from two and four hole buttons and how it is generally sewn in place.
Sewing
When it comes to sewing a button in place it can be done either by hand or machine. Many machines have a pre-programmed feature on them that allows the machine to easily stitch a button in place. ZJ explains that no matter what diameter of button you are sewing the distance between the holes is the same, which makes using the button sewing feature on your machine quick and easy. ZJ also explains that if your machine does not have that feature you can still use your machine to sew a button in place by simply using a zig-zag stitch with an appropriate width.
When you go in the sewing store and you're picking out buttons, sometimes it's hard to know which button to buy. Well, today, I'd like to give you some tips so that your projects come out just as you envision. The first thing I want you to look at is the difference between a two-hole and a four-hole button. Typically, you're going to use a four-hole button when you have something that's going to be going through a lot of stress, particularly jackets I highly recommend the four-hole button for those, and you'll see these used a lot on men's jackets. And when you're putting them on, you may, depending on how thick your fabric is, want to do a thread shank underneath so there's a little extra play for putting the button in and out.
But obviously by stitching in two different directions, you're going to have a lot more security for the button and less chance of it coming off than you will with just a two-hole button. The two-hole button is typically a little less traditional, should we say? While it is a traditional button, it may be a little less than what you see with a four-hole because the four-hole is typically done on shirts and menswear, and that is when I say traditional look, that's what I'm referring to. Where I find that the two-hole button can be a little more dressy, maybe a little less casual, it just depends on how you want to use it. The other thing I want you to be aware of, and the reason I've picked these, is these are all flat buttons.
The other type of button has a shank on it and you sew it from the underneath, and again, those are primarily for coats, but they also are used as decorative buttons when you don't want the threads to show. When you have buttons, flat buttons, that need to be sewed on, you can of course sew them on by hand. But if you're like me, I like to use that feature on the sewing machine that sews them on fast and easy. Typically, depending on the machine, there is a setting for sewing on buttons, and you literally click on it and the machine is programmed to sew on the button. What happens is it will take several stitches up and down that are tie on, tie off stitches to lock the stitch in place.
Then it will stitch back and forth into the hole several times and then tie on and tie off again. If you don't have that feature on your machine, you can certainly sew your buttons on by machine as long as you have a zigzag machine, and you would just adjust the width between the holes to an appropriate zigzag stitch or move your needle over slightly if you need to, and then just take your tie on, tie off stitches manually. The thing that I want you to notice, though, and we don't realize it, is that the distance between holes on all of these buttons, no matter how small or how big they are, is exactly the same, and that consistency or standardization makes it very easy for you as the home sewer to with confidence use that button setting on your machine and know that it will work. Now, when I said it will go back and forth and sew it, you will have to move it to get to the opposite holes when you're doing a four-hole button to make sure it goes in. So you'll have to do the same program twice to anchor that.
But hopefully that will give you a little bit of confidence in picking not only the right button, but also feeling confident about being able to sew them on with your machine and save yourself some time so you can get onto that next project.
I love ZJ's tips for sewing buttons on by hand that are in a separate video. I would like to see more about how to choose the diameter and thickness when REPLACING buttons on pants, shirts, etc. --What IS the "right" size for a waist button on a pair of pants, for instance? (I have bought pants that came with undersized buttons that did not stay fastened when I was wearing them: NOT fun!)
1. What are tie-on, tie-off stitches? 2. How does the machine know if the button is 2- or 4-holes? Is there a setting?
As this is a "sewing" website, I had hope that the video would demonstrate how to SEW on buttons. In particular, I find shank buttons or self covered buttons difficult and it would have been nice to see the proper way to put them on a garment. Also it would have been nice to cover when TWO buttons are needed, one inside the other outside a garment, as in a coat closure.
You don't even discuss how to sew the buttons by hand. I think most people will be sewing them by hand. You also don't mention how flat buttons aren't sewn flat to the fabric but the stitches are raised off the fabric. Doing it by machine will only sew flat buttons flat.
To Nayla, I have seen both ways, since I do alterations, I make any buttons match what is already there, and prefer to do this by hand. You are correct in that going across the button in an x would be longer. I checked on one of my machines that will sew on buttons and found that it can be adjusted, so you could go either an x or side by side on any cool funky button you want and long as your machine is adjustable. I have found some real nice buttons that are not standard in knitting shops.Happy Sewing.
You might want to actually set up a teleprompter so this isn't so long running and she knows what she is saying. Scripts are so important even when you want to make it social.
When you sew a four-hole button, do you sew diagonally creating an "X" or would you sew two parallel stitch lines. Wouldn't the distance between holes be longer when sewing diagonally? Thanks.