Who Taught You to Sew On a Button?

Pillbox Hats. Necklace Charms. Who Taught You to Sew on a Button?

My mother taught me to sew on a button, to wet the end of the threads in my mouth to go through the eye of the needle and twist the two wet ends into a knot.

She taught me to read and follow a pattern, how to hem a skirt.

Between her teaching and two years of Home Economics in high school, I made my own lined jacket, with buttons and buttonholes, matching skirt and hat (thank you Jackie Kennedy for pillbox hats!) by the end of my senior year.

The Real Secret

My Freshman year of college, I came in second in a dress-making contest at Michigan State University.

But, it was my husband who really taught me how to sew on a button. His mother or grandmother had taught him.

Did you know that you need to leave room between the button and the jacket so you can wrap the thread around the thread between button and jacket several times to make it strong enough to make a button last?

I taught both my sons, believing that everyone should know how to sew on a button

Threading The Needle

My older son recently demonstrated he knew his way around a spool of thread. He fashioned a needle threader from a narrow strip of paper

He folded it in half, lay a string in the fold, then twisted it to make it even thinner, and used that to lead the string through the hook on a charm for a necklace for his daughter.