How To: Sew Buttons

How To: Sew Buttons

Knowing how to sew buttons by machine can save you a lot of time and effort. If your hand stitching isn't great, or you just don't enjoy it, then learning to sew on buttons on your sewing machine is a necessary skill. Buttons sewn on by machine are often stronger and faster than those hand sewn. Buttons are used on a wide variety of projects, i.e. Duvets, Bags, Skirts, Pillows.


Last time I showed you how to sew a 4-step buttonhole and after this post you should be able to sew a button to go with it!

What you'll need:
Button foot
Button
Embroidery/Darning Plate (Depending on machine)
Seam ripper

Tools for sewing buttons by machine

Setting up your machine
Lower your feed dogs or install your darning/embroidery plate to disable the feed dogs. 

Install darning/embroidery plate

Adjust stitch length dial to 0.

Stitch length = 0

Install the button foot onto your machine

Install button foot

If you are struggling to identify which foot is the button foot, it has a grip part at the front of the foot to hold the button in place.


Sew your button
Adjust your stitch width to "0" so that your needle is in one of the holes. Sew a few stitches in this first hole to secure the button into place.

Stitch width = 0

Now increase the stitch width until the needle is lined up with the next hole. Only use your hand wheel until you know it is perfectly lined up and it will enter cleanly through the next hole.

Line up your needle.

Sew a few stitches through left and right holes.

Now adjust stitch width back to "0" and do some stitches to secure again.

Stitch width = 0

Pull the thread from the front of the button through to the back. I find it helpful to use my seam ripper to pull at the threads from the back of the work. Once the threads are at the back of the work, tie the threads into a knot and trim any excess.

Pull threads to the back and tie.

If you have a four hole button repeat these steps for the next pair of holes.

Repeat for second pair of holes.

Hoorah! You've finished the blog post and should now be able to sew buttons on by machine. I hope you've found this blog post helpful, if you have any questions comment below, Tweet me or comment on my Facebook Page. Remember to check out my How To: Sew Buttonholes Post!

You're done... yippee!