My son came to me the other day and said that the button fell off of his shorts.  He gave me the button and said the shorts were in the laundry.  I told him once the shorts were clean, to put them on my sewing table so I could sew the button back on.  While we had a few minutes to ourselves yesterday, I called him into my sewing room.  I told him that his dad didn’t know much about sewing or quilting but the one thing he DID know was how to sew a button back on.  So, it was time for our son to learn the same skill!

I explained why the toothpick was there (to keep the button loose enough for him to hit the buttonhole) and I started sewing the button on, explaining what I was doing along the way.  Once I’d completed the first run of the needle and thread through the button, I handed it over and told him to repeat what I had just done, all while holding onto the button and the toothpick.  I was very pleased to see that he not only listened to my directions – but that he didn’t even put up any arguments as to why he couldn’t do the task at hand!  He finished two more rounds and then I showed him how to tie off the thread.

He was set – and I am pretty confident that if he has another button come off on another pair of shorts and/or pants, he will at least be able to help me help him with the basic sewing of a button!