How to Sew a Button: And Other Nifty Things Your Grandmother Knew (13 page)

Step 4:
Push your needle up through the back of the fabric to the front, pulling the thread all the way through. Slide your button on down the thread to meet the fabric.

Step 5:
Once you’ve got your button in place and the holes lined up, push your needle down through the opposite hole (either diagonally or adjacently to match your other buttons) and out the back of the fabric. Repeat four times, pulling the thread tight enough so that your button doesn’t dangle but loose enough so that your fabric doesn’t pucker. If you have a four-hole button, switch hole-pairs and repeat.

Step 6:
For the finishing touch, push your needle up through the back of the fabric to the front but
not
through any buttonholes. Just let it dangle out the side. Pull your button away from the fabric and wrap your thread tightly around the shank (aka the thread between the button and fabric) six times.

Step 7:
Press your needle through the shank twice. Snip the thread—no need to knot.

Step 8:
Get dressed, feel proud, look snazzy.

• Check inside your shirt for replacement buttons. Manufacturers, at least the nice ones, will stash a few extras inside, usually along the side or bottom seam.
  

• If you lose a noticeable button, can’t find a replacement, and are just hanging in the wind, snip one from a less-conspicuous spot, like the very bottom of your shirt or a cuff, preferably one you’ll later roll up. That’ll buy you a little time to replace the button.
  

• If you’re sewing a button onto a thicker fabric, place a match-stick or toothpick on the button and sew over it to help you maintain proper spacing. Then remove the spacer before winding the thread around the shank.
  

Step 1:
Round up your stuff: a needle, some thread that matches your pants, a handful of straight pins, an iron, a ruler, chalk or a pencil, and scissors. Fire up your iron. And find a full-length mirror.

Step 2:
Slip on your too-long trousers, plus whatever fabulous shoes you intend to wear with them. On the outside of your right foot, fold your hem underneath so your pants hang a proper ¼ inch off the floor. Secure with two straight pins, placed horizontally, one at the top of the fold and one at the bottom. (Your pants will rise when you bend over so after you pin, stand up straight, arms by your sides, to double-check the length.)

Step 3:
Take off your pants. Woo hoo! Sewing in your undies is fun! Peek inside your pinned pant leg and, using a ruler, measure the length of the material you’ve folded up inside. Using that measurement as your guide, fold up and pin around the entire leg. Repeat on the other pant leg.

Step 4:
Iron your new hems on the inside of your pant leg, pressing to form a new crease. Try on your trousers again to triple-check
the length. If they’re too long or short, no sweat! Just go back to step 2 and give it another whirl.

Step 5:
Take off your pants, remove the pins, turn your pants inside out, and unfold your new hem. Don’t worry—the crease will remain. Then rip out the old hem by very carefully snipping every few stitches and removing the loose threads between snips.

Step 6:
Lay your pants flat, in-seam to in-seam, and from the crease that marks your new hem, measure down 1¼ inches (for straight-legged pants) or ¾ inch (for tapered or flared pants). Mark it with chalk or a pencil in several places, connect dots with a straightedge, and then cut along that line to trim the excess. Fold your new bottom edge inward by ¼ inch and iron in that teensy crease so it’s nice and neat. (This whole razzle-madazzle will help prevent any frayed edges.)

Step 7:
Now that you’re free from any excess pantage, fold up your new hem again, using your handy crease as your guide, and repin it every few inches, placing pins perpendicular to the new hem.

Step 8:
Measure out about three feet of thread, roughly the distance between your nose and fingertips. (If you’ve got unusually short arms, turn your head to the left while measuring out to the right for added distance. If you’ve also got an unusually large nose, you may end up with extra thread, but that’s okay.) Thread your needle by passing the end you snipped from the spool through the eye and pulling it down, until it’s about twice as long as the straggling end. (Doing it this way will help avoid tangles.) You’re going to sew with a single strand of thread, so rather than knotting both strands of thread together, just make a little knot at the end of the single, long strand, while allowing the short strand to continue dangling.

Step 9:
Hooray! It’s actually time to sew. Place your needle underneath the very edge of your new hem and press it up through the
fabric. (Your thread’s knot will be hidden beneath your hem.) Move along the hem about a pinky’s width, and make your first real stitch by passing your needle through just a few threads of the cloth of your pant leg (just above the fold) and then up through the fold of your hem. Move down ½ inch, and repeat. Make sure you’re putting your needle through only the tiniest bit of fabric on the leg of your pants; this will make the stitches nearly invisible.

Step 10:
After every third completed stitch, lock your work by passing your needle and thread once more through the fold only before continuing on. (This little trick will help prevent the entire hem from unraveling, if you ever get your heel caught in it.)

Step 11:
Once you stitch all the way around your pant leg, press your needle up through the fold only, as you’ve done on every third stitch, and pass it underneath the resulting loop before you pull it taut to form a knot. Repeat twice, and trim any excess thread.

Step 12:
Turn your pants right side out, iron the hem once more for added crispness, and strut your stuff.

• Don’t pull your thread too tight, or your pants will pucker up, and not in a good way.
  

• If you can’t find matching thread, always use a shade darker, not lighter. It’ll be less noticeable.
  

Step 1:
Set up your ironing board in a clean, uncluttered spot next to an outlet. Fill your iron with water and plug it in. Crank it to the appropriate temperature, as recommended on the label of your shirt. If your iron is too hot, you’ll torch your top. Too cold, and you’ll lose the war on wrinkles.

Step 2:
Pop the collar as if it were 1983. Lay your unbuttoned shirt, faceup, on the board and spread the collar flat. Using small circular motions, iron the collar from the center toward each point. Flip it and repeat.

Step 3:
Do the yoke. Pull the shoulder of your shirt over the pointy end of the board, and iron the piece of material that connects the collar to the body. Switch shoulders and repeat.

Step 4:
Smooth the sleeves. Grab the right one and, aligning the seam along the underarm, from pit to cuff, spread it flat on the board. Work your iron in tiny circles from shoulder to (but not over) cuff.

Step 5:
Cock the cuffs. Spread them flat and iron from the sleeve’s seam to the edge. Flip it, and repeat. If you have folded cuffs, fold now and iron just the crease.

Step 6:
Iron the front and back. If you’re right-handed, drape the right panel of your shirt’s front over the board, collar toward the pointy end, allowing the rest of the shirt to hang in front of you. (If you’re a lefty, start with the left front panel.) Work your iron in small circular motions from the top to the tail. Rotate the shirt over the board to iron the back. Rotate again to iron the front left panel.

Step 7:
Wear immediately or hang on a hanger, preferably a wooden one.

• Iron only clean shirts. If you try to press a dirty one, you could set in stains—mwah-ha-ha!—forever.
  

• Spritz stubborn wrinkles with a water bottle before ironing.
  

• To iron around buttons, poke the point of your iron, held flat, between each, angling up and down with every pass. Don’t plow over them or they could break.
  

Step 1:
Grab a darning needle (aka tapestry needle) (aka a thick, blunt needle) and find some yarn that matches your holey sock—or some yarn that doesn’t, if you’re a little kooky.

Step 2:
Measure off about three to four feet of yarn, from your nose to your fingertips and then some, and thread your needle, pulling your yarn through so that one end is long and the other is just a few inches.

Step 3:
Turn your sock inside out and slip a wooden darning mushroom (or, if you don’t have one, a tennis or golf ball) inside. Gently spread the sock’s hole over the curved top of your darning tool or ball, so you can get a good look at the damage done.

Step 4:
Stitch a circle around the hole, about an inch larger in diameter than the hole, by weaving your needle over and under every stitch.

Step 5:
Patch the hole with a plain basket weave. Starting on, say, the left, weave your needle over and under every knitted stitch from the bottom of the stitched circle to the top. When you get to the
top, leave a teeny loop (so your socks have give), move one row to the right, and weave your way back to the bottom of your stitched circle. Repeat. Depending on the thickness of your socks, you’ll probably fit in a few rows before you get to the hole itself. When you’re weaving the rows broken by the hole, simply jump your needle to the other side and continue weaving. This will result in parallel lines of yarn over the hole.