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Hot Costume Care
‘TIP OF THE MONTH’:

Sewing on buttons: Generally, dance performance costumes don’t have many buttons. But some do, and many dancers may not be adept at button sewing. It’s a great skill to have, and simple enough that you can do it yourself and save money by avoiding a trip to your tailor shop.

If you find a loose button on a costume or regular garment, you should secure it before it falls off (there are added costs to replace ALL your buttons on a garment if you lose one).

You will need matching thread, a needle and a scissors or clippers to do the job. If you stay at medium or higher-end hotels, you may have received a complimentary sewing kit of an assortment of threads, needles and a button or two. This little kit is invaluable! If you aren’t lucky enough to have one of these – create your own button sewing kit. Your local fabric store will carry packages of sewing needles, small spools of thread, and small scissors. Gift idea – make kits for your dancer friends! Purchase small spools and scissors for your friends, and divvy up the sewing needles. You can make little sewing kits by using small zip-lock plastic bags. What colors of thread? I’d suggest starting with black, white, beige and a couple of bright colors that you wear. In a pinch, your thread doesn’t always need to totally match. But the more thread colors you can collect, the better. And, if you make these kits for your friends, you can unroll threads from many different colored spools – you only need just a couple of yards for sewing on a few buttons. Wrap the loose thread on a piece of cardboard to keep it from tangling.

Now, on to the sewing. Push a piece of thread through the eye of the needle (if the eyehole is small, it may be difficult). Cut the end of the thread sharply, and it will be easier. Find those reading glasses if you need them! Different needles have different sizes of eyeholes in them, so find a needle with a sufficiently large eye, so you can easily thread it.

Pull the thread through so both ends are the same length. For only one button, a 2-foot piece of thread is plenty long. Now you need to knot the end of the 2 threads. You do this by circling the thread around the end of a finger a couple of times and then push (or roll) it off, causing it to knot. Some practice will make this easier, and it will soon become second nature. Make sure the knot is tight, and won’t come undone. Redo, if necessary.

Locate where the button should be placed. Push the needle up from the wrong side, to the position on the right side of the garment. Go up from the underside of the button and then pull the needle and thread all the way through. Then push the needle and thread down through another hole in the button, through the fabric to the underside. Repeat until you feel you have enough threads securing the button. Finish with your needle and thread on the bottom (underside) of the garment.

Sometimes you might want to raise the button up from the garment slightly, Do this by wrapping the thread around and around the thread, between the button and the garment, before pushing your needle and thread back to the underside of the garment. This procedure really secures a button in place. This can be done whether you have a button with 2 or 4 holes in it, or if it has a shank (a loop on the bottom of the button to stitch through).

Now you need to take several mini-stitches, over and over to secure the thread so it won’t ravel out, before you cut off your thread. Give your button a tug to make sure it is secure.