How to Sew on a Button / Moving a Button

Gather Materials and Tools

● Matching button (hopefully you have the original, if not, find one that slips through the button hole just barely, you want it to be a tight fit)

● Thread – either match what was there previously, match the button, or you can do whatever you want, they’re your pants!

● Needle – a standard sewing needle from a basic needle package will do. It needs to go through your fabric easily, the thread needs to fit through the hole and the needle has to fit through the holes on the button.

● Small scissors

● Toothpick or another needle

● The PANTS!

Get Ready to Sew the Button on The PANTS!

The pants we are working on today are classic chinos that are the staple of many men who work in an office.

While these pants still have a button on them, the technique will be the same for sewing a button on any other project. I just get the pleasure of cutting off the button first. If you have pants with a button that needs to be moved and the button is still attached, you get to cut it off. Be very careful to only snip the threads and not the fabric of the pants. That’s a whole other issue and you won’t find help for that in this post.

So now I have a pair of pants that has no button. This is where you would start this tutorial if you had a pair of pants that has no button because it fell off in a more organic/natural way. Or a shirt or a dress, the method is the same.

If you are replacing a button exactly where it fell off, leave the threads if possible. This makes replacing it so much easier, no guessing as to where it is supposed to go. If the button fell off and there are no threads, look closely to see if you see any holes left behind by the thread. Usually you will see some indication, especially if they are well loved and well worn, where the thread was and should leave a mark. If there is no sign of the original location, zip the pants up all the way and hold the button hole in place directly over the zipper.

If you like where the button was, using a disappearing ink/air soluble marker, mark the place where the button was by poking the marker through a spot in the middle of the button hole. This will make sure that the button is going to be in the right place. A little off to either side won’t be too big a deal unless you go too far over the zipper (to the left in this example) because it will make the pants tighter. (That’s another way to utilize this technique, make the pants a little bit tighter.)

Relocating the Button

This section is the process for relocating a pants button – those of you who just want to sew on a button, you can skip down to the ‘Putting the Button in its Place section’ below. Or read this so you can remember this trick for the future.

With the pants zippered all the way up, hold the pants button hole slightly to the right (in this case). We want to move the button as for to the right as we can while still making sure the zipper can close and you can button the pants easily. See that bit of the button hole that is slightly more round and large on the left side? That is a good spot to start. See if you can hold that spot over to the right, pretty much directly above the zipper, while still able to zipper. Mark that spot with your disappearing ink. That is the new home for your button.

(When finished, this might require you to suck in your gut while putting them on since we are moving the button to rest on one end of the button hole, but that is sooooooo much better than sucking it in all day.)

Putting the Button in its Place

If you need a refresher for how to thread a needle and make a knot, check out a quick Stitch Clinic video here.

Bring the needle from the back to the front where you marked the button location.

We need to accommodate for the thickness of the fabric, we cannot just sew a button on expecting it to be able to hold the thick pants fabric if there is no room behind the button. I like to use either a needle or a toothpick, you can use other things, it just needs to be thin (width wise, left to right) enough to go between the button holes and as thick (height wise, up and down) as the fabric you are sewing.

Sew the Button into Place

With the needle coming out of the fabric towards you, place the button onto the needle. That toothpick is going to hold the button up off the fabric enough so that the button hole will fit behind it and not pop off. Please be careful, you see how close that is to the underside of my nail, OUCH.

Pull the needle and thread until the knot hits the back of the fabric. This is where you need to make a decision. Depending on how much of a perfectionist you are or if the buttons have a pattern that you need to take into account, you can swing the button around that needle until it is in the position you want it to stay. I looked at the button on the back pocket and saw that the button holes were placed such that they formed a diamond, with a corner straight up. Make sure the button doesn’t stray too far from the original marking. Then, dive the needle down the hole opposite, into the fabric.

First stitch done. Holding the toothpick in place can be tricky, it might take a few tries to get it right.

This is what we have so far. I pulled it out to show you that it’s still very loose at this point, having only one stitch in is good to know where you are going but it’s not tight enough to let go, you still need to hold the toothpick in place.

Repeat this step at least 4 times. Start with the needle in the backside of the fabric, bring it up through the first hole you put it through and then dive down into the fabric in the same hole you dove* through before. (*I just looked up the word dive for it’s past tense, turns out you can use either dived or dove.) Keep the toothpick in place and keep the thread taut. You do not want it too loose or too tight. Like everything else in life and in Goldilocks and the Three Bears, you want it juuuuuuuuuuuust riiiiiiiiiiiight.

Now, if your button only had two holes you would skip this next part and just repeat the last step a few more times. Since this button has four holes, we will just repeat the process but this time using the empty holes.

AND like we did before, dive through the opposite, open hole of the button. I didn’t show it since I think you can figure this one out (Ok I’ll tell the truth, I forgot to take the photo).

One More Thing Before We Secure the Button

We are going to stop with the needle in the back of the fabric. Now, take your needle and go through the fabric once more, but we are not aiming for the button holes.

We want the needle/thread to come out between the fabric and the button.

Why do we want to do this? We want to wrap some excess thread around the thread holding the button on to give it even more strength. This wrapping creates what is called a shank. Just a few times around is all you need. If you do it too much, it will take up the space you just worked so hard to create between the button and fabric.

After wrapping a few times, take the needle and thread to the inside of the pants, very close to where the thread attached the button.

Securing the Button for Good

Now that you are on the back side, you are going to take your needle and take a very little ‘bite’ of fabric very close to where the button was attached. Push the needle through but do not pull the thread all the way. We are going to tie off the thread so the button will not fall off after you sew it!

Leave the loop that was created by pulling the thread half-way and take your needle through the loop. Pull tight so that the knot is created at where the thread is coming out of the fabric.

Repeat at least twice. I personally like three times. Pull tight on each one, but don’t stress the thread.

Carefully trim the thread. I like to leave a little tail, that way I don’t accidentally cut the thread holding the button on.

Pull out the previous threads if they are still there.

Done! You’ll probably be able to see where the button was in relation to the new button placement. (Remember way up towards the beginning of the post, we talked about seeing were the button was originally sewn on by looking for the holes.)

Enjoy that extra half inch of space in your waist! Thanks for sticking around for this super detailed post, it was worth it! Next time you need to sew on a button, I hope you feel confident after reading this post.

Want to see another basic tutorial or something a little more advanced. Let me know!

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My favorite tool from this post:

Disappearing Ink Pen for Fabric