Button placement is very important on a garment. When a garment is closed with an ill placed button it can show puckers, leave gaps, and will never let a garment hang as it was meant to. And here is where I use my Mary Poppins’ voice, “Taking time to place a button in the correct spot is time well spent”. (Especially when they close down center front or center back).
What about cuff buttons? They are not in a prominently seen spot and won’t effect the hanging of a garment. However take some care here too. If sewn too far into the cuff they can make the cuff too tight and if sewn too high up the cuff the overlapped part of the cuff will peek out. So placement is still important even at the cuff.
How do you know where to place a button at the cuff? Sometimes it’s marked on a pattern and sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes it is and by the time I get to this usually last step I’ve put the pattern away and do not want to get it back out again. Good thing button placement on a cuff is easy to figure out.
Overlap the cuff to close as it will when you are done (buttonhole on top? check) See that the placket lays flat and the two bottom edges of the cuff line up on top of each other neatly. Pin in place to hold.
Here you could mark with a fabric pencil or skip that step and mark with your thread with which you are sewing the button on. Stick your threaded needle down through the buttonhole at about 1/8 of an inch in from the buttonhole’s short end that is closest to the finished edge of the garment (see X above). Placement at this end of the buttonhole gives you the most room should you force your fist through the buttoned cuff.
Lift away the overlapping cuff. The needle in the photo is barely visible but it has been pushed into the cuff just where I want the center of the button to be
Pull your needle all the way through this end of the cuff. The knot is showing right where the button’s center will be. The knot will be covered by the button.
Place your button on top of the knot and sew it in place. (If you need more instructions read this: How to sew on a button)
Button you cuff. You look smashing.
