Attaching Brass Buttons

June 7, 2006 5:47 PM

I have a khaki bush jacket w/ regular buttons. I have a set of detachable brass buttons w/ "eyelets" - silver rings, almost like a key ring. Supposedly, I can attach these to the jacket. How do I do this? (picture inside)

You can see the button assembly here.

Thanks!

posted by bobot to clothing, beauty, & fashion (6 comments total)

I may be completely wrong here, but it seems to me that the silver ring should be taken off the button and discarded, and then the button will be sewn on the jacket in the usual fashion. The silver ring was probably only used as a way to store or display the button for sale.
posted by orange swan at 6:29 PM on June 7, 2006

No, the person who loaned the buttons to me told me I could use the ring to somehow attach the brass buttons to either the existing buttons, or the thread holding on the existing buttons... that's why I'm confused. Apparently they can be attached without sewing them on the jacket using this contraption, but damned if I can see how.
posted by bobot at 6:32 PM on June 7, 2006

Huh. I sew quite a lot, and I've never seen anything like this. Here are some options, and I don't pretend to know which one is the right one.

a) You could just sew the ring to the jacket.
b) You could work the key ring part onto the shank of the existing button.
c) You could work the key ring onto the existing threads holding the current button in place.
d) And my best guess is that you perhaps could pick up a few threads of material (perhaps with the help of a needle) and wedge the end of the key ring in, and then work those threads onto the ring.

But I can't imagine why you would do any of these things. To my mind, the buttons would look so much better simply sewn on.
posted by orange swan at 6:42 PM on June 7, 2006

Brass uniform buttons are usually made to be detachable, since they don't launder well. They are held on the the jacket with something that looks like a small cotter pin. If these buttons came with the jacket, I imagine that there is a small round button hole on the side of the jacket where the regular plastic buttons are sewn on. Push the little ring through the hole and insert the cotter pin on the backside. The cotter pins are available at most fabric stores.

If the jacket didn't come with holes for the buttons, they are easy enough to add with a regular sewing machine or any dry cleaner/tailor should be able to help you out.
posted by jvilter at 12:09 AM on June 8, 2006

If the split rings are smaller than the buttons already on the jacket then pretend the jacket is a key and put them on the split ring the same way you would do a key.
posted by Mitheral at 11:06 AM on June 8, 2006

thanks jvilter- I ended up taking the whole assembly to a tailor after I got back from vacation (and just didn't wear the buttons with it) and that's exactly what he showed me.
posted by bobot at 3:20 PM on June 12, 2006