It might seem that attaching a button to a hand knitted project is a simple straightforward task. But if you’ve ever tried to do it, you probably know that quite a few things can go wrong affecting the look and the durability of your beautiful knitted garment.
For many years I avoided knitting cardigans solely because I was afraid to ruin it when I attach buttons. Having a background in sewing, I knew that sewing a button onto a loosely knitted (and most hand knitted fabric has a much looser texture than a machine knitted one) fabric will cause stretching and sagging.
Back then, I didn’t know how to prevent it. Now, many cardigans later, I do and I’m happy to share this simple method with all of you, my friends.
Watch this technique in the video tutorial:
The list of supplies is short and simple – we’ll need buttons, thread and a needle.
BUTTONS
To securely attach a button without stretching the fabric, we’ll use two buttons for each buttonhole – a functional button that will be attached to the right side of the work, and a support button that will be sewn to the wrong side of the fabric.
This double-button solution is the best way to make sure the button does not stretch the button band ruining the look of your garment in the long run.
Another great way to protect a button band is to stitch a ribbon to the wrong side of the fabric, but this way is quite tedious and the result is a bit cumbersome.
Support buttons, on the other hand, are flat and small. They don’t show that much, especially if you use buttons that blend in with the fabric. Clear plastic buttons usually look nice on any project.
Even if the fabric of your project is very fine, I highly recommend using support buttons, but choose the thinnest ones you can find, like the mother of pearl buttons or small coconut buttons.
When choosing functional buttons (the ones that will stay on the right side of the work), it is important to consider the size of the button. It should be big enough to fit into a buttonhole, but not too small to easily slide through it.
As long as the size of the button matches the size of the buttonhole, choose any type of button you like.
Toggle buttons look great on thick cozy projects.
Shank buttons are best for projects with textured button bands because the shank keeps the button from sinking into the fabric. Just be careful with the metal shank buttons – if the button is too heavy, it will pull the button band down stretching the fabric.
Flat buttons with two or four holes are probably the most commonly used ones. They are available in a huge variety of sizes, shapes and colours, and they could be made of wood, coconut shell, glass, metal or plastic.
THREAD
Unless you are using shank buttons, make sure the thread used to sew the buttons on matches the colour of the project or the colour of the button.
Of course, you can ignore this guideline if you want to use thread in a bright colour for some decorative effect.
The easiest way to match the colour of the thread is to attach buttons with the same yarn that you used to knit your project.
If the yarn is thick, split it into plies and use one or two plies as your sewing thread.
If the yarn is too thick, or if it cannot be split into plies, use sewing thread or a finer yarn in the same colour as the project.
That’s what I’ll do to attach a button to my swatch. Instead of using the yarn that I made the swatch with, I’ll use a few strands of bamboo yarn in a similar colour.
Another important thing to consider is the strength of the thread. If the yarn is fragile, splitting it into plies will make it very weak. If we use it to attach the buttons, chances are the yarn will break after some wear.
To strengthen the yarn, align it with a sewing thread in the same or very similar shade and use these two strands together when you attach the buttons.
NEEDLE
Choose a needle that is thin enough to go through a hole in the functional and support buttons. It should have a big enough eye to fit two strands of the thread that we plan to use.
If you can’t find a needle that will fit two strands of the thread, use a needle that can fit one strand. Later in this tutorial, I’ll show you how to attach the thread to the fabric in this case.
It could be a blunt wool needle or a sharp sewing needle. Knitted fabric is quite loose, so there is no need to worry about the sharpness of the needle.
All supplies are in place. Let’s use them to securely attach a button to our project.
MARKING THE SPOTS FOR ATTACHING BUTTONS
First, we need to decide where exactly we should sew the button on. If the buttons on your project are just for decoration, then choose the spot where the button will look nice and mark that spot with a pin or a locking stitch marker.
If the buttons are used as a closure on a cardigan, cowl, poncho or any other project, we have to make sure the button is attached in a spot that coincides with the corresponding hole in the buttonhole band.
Here’s how we find that right spot step by step:
STEP 1
Place your project on a flat surface, even out the fabric, overlap the buttonhole band and the button band and make sure the bottom edges of the bands are aligned.
In this tutorial, I will use two sample bands to show you the process of attaching the buttons.
STEP 2
Without disturbing the alignment of the fabric, insert a pin into the centre of each buttonhole.
If you are worried that pins will fall out of the fabric, use locking stitch markers. It takes a bit longer to attach them to the fabric, but they will safely guard the button spots even if you have to move the project around.
STEP 3
Carefully remove the buttonhole band leaving the pins or markers inserted in the button band.
Adjust the placement of the pins or markers if necessary. Make sure they are aligned vertically and there are equal spaces between them.
Now we are ready to sew the buttons on.
SEWING A BUTTON ONTO THE FABRIC
STEP 1 – THREADING THE NEEDLE
Fold a piece of thread in half and insert the open ends into the eye of the needle.
If the thread you use is thick, thread it into the needle in a single strand.
STEP 2 – ATTACHING THE THREAD TO THE FABRIC
With the right side of the button band facing you, insert the needle in and out of the fabric around the spot marked by a pin or a marker.
Remove the marker and pull the thread through the fabric until the folded thread forms a small loop at the entry point.
Insert the needle into that loop.
Pull the thread to tighten the loop.
If you use a single thread, pull it through the fabric leaving a small tail (around 10 cm / 4″).
Tie the tail and the thread with a square knot.
STEP 3 – SEWING ON THE BUTTONS
First, decide how the functional button will be oriented on the fabric. It usually looks better when the holes of the button are parallel or perpendicular to the edge of the button band.
If the button has four holes, decide whether you want to stitch these holes with two lines, a cross or some other pattern.
Insert the needle into one hole of the functional button.
Pull the thread through. Place the button on the fabric the way you like it to be, then insert the needle from the top down into another hole of the button, through the fabric and into one of the holes of the support button.
Pull the thread through, but don’t pull it too tight. We don’t want to bury the button in the fabric. It should be sitting on top of the button band without distorting the fabric.
If you are worried that you will pull the thread too much, insert a wooden match between the functional button and the fabric. Keep it there until you finish sewing the button on.
Now insert the needle in the opposite direction – through the other hole in the support button, the fabric and out from a hole in the functional button. Choose the hole based on the pattern that you want to stitch on top of the button.
Make a few more stitches going from the functional button to the support button and back until the button is securely attached to the fabric. Bring the needle between the fabric and the functional button after the last stitch.
Remove the wooden match if you used it as a spacer and wrap the thread two or three times around the stitches between the functional button and the fabric. These wraps will form a shank that will keep the button from sinking into the fabric.
STEP 4 – SECURING THE THREAD
Wrap the thread around the shank that we formed in the previous step, but don’t pull the thread tight. Insert the needle into the loop created by the thread wrap.
Pull tight to secure the thread.
If the thread is slippery, or if it seems that the thread is not properly secured, make one more wrap around the shank, insert the needle into the loop formed by that wrap and pull the thread to secure it.
Then insert the needle into the shank between the functional button and the fabric.
Pull the thread through and trim it. It is better to leave a small tail that is long enough to prevent the thread from unravelling, but short enough to stay behind the functional button.
If you used a single thread that you tied with a square knot when you attached the thread to the fabric in step 2, trim that tail as well so that it does not show from behind the button.
Follow the same steps to attach the rest of the buttons. Remember to stay consistent with the orientation of the button and the pattern that you stitch on it (if your button has more than two holes).
If you are looking for a way to make a reliable buttonhole that does not stretch, take a look at this tutorial. I used this method to make buttonholes in the button band featured in the photos above.
P.S. After this tutorial was published, I’ve got a message from Iris with a clever trick that she uses when she attaches buttons to her projects – instead of attaching the thread to the fabric, attach it to the support button using the same “thread-in-the-loop” method featured in this tutorial.
Then insert the needle from back to front into the fabric (around the marked spot) and into the functional button. The rest of the process is the same as the one explained in the video and photo tutorials.
SAVE IT FOR LATER:
This and 41 other in-depth tutorials are part of Knitting Collection #6.