Utah Community Learning

Taking off the old button and saving what's underneath

Okay. You've read the fabric, thread's cut to elbow length — and if you don't know why elbow length, go back to lesson two, because my mother taught me that lesson the hard way and I'm not letting you skip it. She caught me cutting a two-foot piece of thread when I was about nine, ready to sew a button on my church dress, and she said "you'll tangle yourself into next Tuesday." I did not listen the first time. I tangled myself into next Tuesday. I cut it to elbow length every single time now and I tell every student the same thing, and I mean it just as much as she did.

Today we take the old button off. This sounds like the easy part. It's not hard, but it's easy to do carelessly, and careless is where you end up with a hole in your shirt where a button used to be.

Why we're not just yanking it off

I know the temptation. Button's hanging by a thread, you give it one good pull, done. Don't do that. When you yank a button, you take fabric with it. You can pull the threads right out of the weave, especially on anything worn thin, and now you've got a bigger repair than you started with. We're going to cut it off properly and see what's underneath before we do anything else.

What you need on the table

Small, sharp scissors — embroidery scissors if you have them, not your kitchen shears
A seam ripper if you've got one, though scissors work fine for a button
Good light. Not the store lighting we talked about before. A lamp you trust.
The garment, right side up, button visible

Taking it off

Turn the garment so you can see the back of the button if you can — sometimes that's easier, sometimes not, depending on the garment. Either way works.
Slide one blade of your scissors under the threads, between the button and the fabric. You're aiming for the little shank of thread, not the fabric itself.
Snip. One or two threads at a time. Don't saw at it. A clean snip.
Pick the leftover thread bits out with your fingers or the point of the scissors. Get it clean. If you leave a nest of old thread under there, your new button sits crooked and lumpy, and that bothers me more than it probably should.
Set the old button aside — don't throw it away yet. More on that in a second.

Go slow through this part. I come around the table on this one every single class and re-check people's hands, because I've seen scissors slip and nick the fabric right next to the button. If your scissors are sharp — and they should be, dull scissors are actually more dangerous because you push harder — keep your fingers well clear of the blade path and cut away from yourself, not toward.

What's underneath — and here's why we look

Once the button's off, look at that spot on the fabric. Really look. This is the same instinct from the "reading the fabric" lesson, just applied to one small square instead of the whole garment.

You're checking for:

A hole or fraying where the old thread pulled through. Very common on coats and heavier fabric. If the fabric's worn thin right at the button spot, you may need to reinforce it before the new button goes on, not just sew straight into weakened cloth.
Puckering. Sometimes years of a slightly-too-tight button pulls the fabric into a permanent little pucker. You can usually work this out with your fingers, sometimes with a light press, but don't expect miracles on old puckering.
The ghost of the button — a faded or discolored circle where the old button sat, especially on things that have been through a lot of wash cycles or sun. This matters for one reason: it tells you exactly where the new button needs to go. Don't guess. Use the mark.

Save the old button

Don't throw it in the trash. Drop it in a jar, a tin, whatever your mending basket has room for. Buttons come off in twos on a lot of garments — cuffs, waistbands — and having the exact match already in your hand saves you a trip and saves you from the store-lighting problem entirely, because you're not trying to color-match under fluorescent bulbs. You're holding the real thing.

This is also just good sense, and it's the same reason I don't throw out perfectly fixable clothes. A button in a jar is a resource. A button in a landfill is nothing.

Before next time

Take the old button off one real garment before we meet again — something with a button you've actually been avoiding — and bring it, plus the button, to next lesson. We'll sew the new one on and I'll show you the stitch that keeps it there for good. 🌷