Sewing Buttons & Craft Buttons

Sewing buttons in shapes children actually want on things — hearts, stars, flowers, apples and daisies in mixed pastels, rather than the shirt-button beige that comes in a jar from a charity shop. Plus the press snap kit for the fastenings that are not buttons at all.

What are they for?

Three jobs, in the order people buy them for:

  • Finishing handmade clothes — a cardigan, a baby jacket, a dress. A novelty button is the cheapest way to make something homemade look deliberate rather than approximate.
  • Card making and scrapbooking — glued flat, not sewn. Craft buttons carry a lot of colour for their size.
  • Keeping children busy — threading, sorting and counting, which is what a 50-piece mixed bag is really bought for.

Which size?

The macaron heart set comes in three: 12.5 mm, 15 mm and 18 mm, twenty pieces in pastel colours. As a rule the button should be a little smaller than you think — an 18 mm button on a baby cardigan looks like a dinner plate. The 50-piece novelty mixes come in assorted shapes and sizes for when you want variety rather than a matched set.

Two holes or four?

Four-hole buttons hold better on anything that gets pulled, because the thread crosses. Two-hole buttons sit flatter and suit decoration that will not take strain. For a garment that goes in a washing machine, sew with doubled thread and leave a shank of two or three wraps underneath — that small gap is what stops the button tearing the fabric.

When you want a snap instead of a button

On baby clothes, on anything a child does up themselves, and on a placket too narrow for a buttonhole, a press snap button is the better answer. The kit here comes with the snaps and the fastener pliers that set them, so you are not hammering with a spoon on the kitchen table. There is also a five-prong button in 9.5 mm for prong-set fastenings.

A snap takes seconds to fit and needs no buttonhole cut at all — which is the real saving, because a badly cut buttonhole ruins the garment and a badly set snap can simply be taken out.

Replacing a button on trousers rather than making something? A waist cincher clip may be the better answer if the real problem is fit.