Goodwill fashionistas, I purchased a gorgeous top at the Bowie store the other weekend, and when I wore it this week, a button fell off and went MIA! I was a bit disappointed because this top is by the higher end brand Rag & Bone and I really want to wear it again.
This situation has happened to me so many times before, so when this occurred, my disappointment didn’t last long. Over the years, I’ve thought up a couple of solutions for this issue, which can be used for many scenarios like these.
1) Re-purpose Another Button
Sometimes tops have a lot of extra buttons on them like on the sleeves or on the pockets. These are great places to borrow buttons and use them in more important spots like in the middle of a button-up.
I’ve actually done this many times, by taking buttons off of sleeves, especially. These are usually long on me anyway, so when I roll them up, you’d never even know they were there!
2) Buy A Similar Button From the Fabric Store
Sometimes when I simply cannot re-purpose any other button I can use on a shirt, I buy a similar one from the store – whether it’s Goodwill or the fabric store.
If a button is more plain, then a replacement can really be camouflaged in. But, if it’s more on the unique side, you’ll have to make do and find something that is awfully similar.
The good thing is though, most people don’t really look at buttons in detail, so if one is slightly off, no one will be paying attention and critiquing the small inconsistency.
3) Replace All The Buttons Entirely
I have this one beautiful vintage dress that I purchased with most of the buttons missing. I couldn’t pass up such a unique find, so I took the dress home and came up with some possible solutions. My final decision was to head to the fabric store and buy a new set, so that all of the buttons would look sleek and clean.
Luckily the dress only needed 4 of them, so sewing them on wasn’t much of a struggle (in fact, while I was watching a show, I just sewed them on then and there! :)).
Fashionistas, what are your sewing solutions for when a button falls off a beloved piece?
