How to Sew on a Button

Whether you're making your own clothes or just fixing them in an emergency, everyone needs to know how to sew on a button. Here are easy instructions...

Before you can get started, you will need to find your button. If you have lost your button from an article of clothing you already own, you may be able to find the original one. You can also look inside the bottom hem of commercial clothing to look for extra buttons, which the manufacturer sometimes sews inside. If you can't find an exact matching button, you can always substitute with a neutral button such as a white one or a clear one until you get home, or get to a store, to find one that is the perfect color.

Next you will need thread. Ideally, your thread should be the same color as the thread that was used to sew on any existing buttons on your garment. If you can't find that color, you can usually find the basic three colors: black, white and beige in any discount or convenience store. Choose whichever one matches your garment best.

Take about two feet of thread and thread it through your hand-needle. Pull the ends until they are even with each other, and then tie a good solid knot. This will leave you with a double thickness of thread coming from your needle.

Buttons typically have either two holes or four holes for you to sew them on with. If you have the two-hole kind you will simply start your thread on the inside of your garment, come up through one hole, and then down through the other hole, and then back through the fabric. Just keep going around and around like that in a circle until your button feels good and secure.

If you have the kind of button with four holes, you will still begin at the back of your garment and come through the fabric and the first hole. Then you will go down through the hole that is diagonally across from the one you started with. Go round and round through those two holes a few times, and then switch and do the other two holes diagonally. This will leave the thread showing on top of your button shaped like an X.

Once your buttons are secure, pull your needle to the back of your fabric. Now that you have your needle, thread, and your starting thread (that's the tail of the knot you tied earlier), you can tie these two threads together. Tie them together in a tight secure knot, and then clip off any excess length of thread. Now your button is secure.

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