Mending Monday: Repairing Unraveled Buttonholes

Well, it's Monday again and here I am with another pair of my husband's pants, lol. He has quite literally loved these almost to death. They have paint all over them too, but you know ... comfy pants must be kept ... I dig it. 

At first, Justin just told me he needed a new button at the waist, but when I took a closer look I saw that just a button wouldn't really get these babies in wearable condition...

Half of the buttonhole had unraveled! Yikes! I was feeling really ambitious (plus I was in the mood to do nice things for my hubby), so I went the full mile and re-embroidered the buttonhole stitching! It sounds very impressive, but it's really not hard to do. This is how they used to be made before sewing machines were invented anyway, so I'm doing it real old school :)

I found a thread that relatively matched - it's a bit dark, but seriously look at the pants. I can't see that it would matter at this point lol.

I cut a long thread, put it on the needle, and tied the ends like you would to sew on a button. Since the fabric for the actual pants and the waistband had already separated, I put the needle in between the layers of fabric and brought it out through the waistband fabric. This way, the hole is hidden and secure between the fabric layers.

Then I just started stitching. You want to put the needle through the fabric on one side, pull it through the actual buttonhole, and then push the needle through right next to where you put it in the time before. You are literally wrapping up the edge of the fabric and encasing the frayed edges in your "embroidery".

*Disclaimer* I know my stitches look just awful, but I was just slapping this out and really didn't care to take my time since the pants are so old and ratty anyway. If you want your stitches to look nicer than mine, just pay close attention and go slow. Make sure you are stitching in a straight line and right next to your previous stitch and it will look much more even than mine does.

When I got to the corner, I made one big stitch to "bridge the gap" and pull the sides back closer together, then I just continued stitching upward.

The fabric had ripped and frayed up above the top of the buttonhole, so I stitched through both sides of the rip, encasing the ripped part so all you see is the brown seam. It caused a little bunching because of how far out from the fray I had to stitch, but I doubt it will feel any different worn.

Once I had the buttonhole done, I had to select a button from my handy stash. I seriously love having so many different single buttons - thank you Rochester Button Company ordering cards!

Now my husband not only has a new button, but a fresh buttonhole as well so the pants will actually stay closed :) This took me about 20 minutes from start to finish, so this is a nice quick fix up to save your pants!