Lost Buttons

Yea, wear a "T" shirt and throw away all shirts with buttons. You can even get "T" shirts with patterns to look like button downs.

OK,now that I've gotten that out of my system. I've noticed the exact same things. Several years ago I purchased 6 middle range quality button down shirts. I wear them for work 6 days a week with the same ware every day. Following is a list of their individual conditions:

1)Bright Red-No longer bright, no other troubles

2)Burgundy-One elbow worn through, upper most button gone (note-I never used that button)

3)Dark Blue-Odd discolorations on sleeves,one button missing from left cuff.

4)Light Blue-Both elbows worn through,one button missing from left cuff (not the same button as Dark Blue)

5)Dark Green-Collar worn mostly through,torn right sleeve and both elbows worn through

6)Tan-Looks exactly as it did when I bought it.

I wear them randomly throughout the week and see no real difference in how I care for them. I do my own laundry.

Well buddy,I for one think you're on to something here. I just have no idea where it's going.

I may not be as observant as I would like to believe I am, but I have never, ever, observed a button (or retaining threads) even attempt the consumption of fermented beverages...

A GA to the old problem.

In my simple words:

Have ever seen the manual stitching of buttons, hooks etc by tailors or house wives?

A knot before the 1st & after the last stitch was give to avoid loosening of stitches & ultimately loss of button / hook etc.

In cheaper stitching being in use by industry we may loose even before the 1st wash as the ends are not locked sometime after the last stitch.

Regards

I've never noticed this problem you mention, but my wife does a lot of sewing and has a wide collection of various types of threads. Some are coarse and strong, others are finer and not as strong. So it may be that the 'dress' shirts use a fine thread for the buttons to complement the polished look, whereas sport shirts use a coarser thread. So after a given number of washings the finer threads wear out quicker.

As for why different color -but otherwise identical- shirts wear out quicker, it may be what they are washed with. Dark shirts washed with jeans may undergo more wear during washing, while light-colored shirts washed with whites may undergo less wear.

What is needed is sufficient data to determine whether thread breakage, thread coming unsewn, or buttons breaking is the primary cause of button loss, and someone to explain why it is seemingly impossible for the garment industry to produce an unbreakable button. Also, data on whether buttons are more prone to disappearance through home laundering, commercial laundering or dry cleaning, and whether garments are pressed or not pressed, both by hand iron and commercial press. Explanations of this data come next.

Try Googling "unbreakable button" and see if you can find any product of that description available for sale. Nada. Zilch. Well, last time I tried, anyway. I'm not going to spoil it by Googling it before approving this post. I hope this doesn't stimulate a rash of false advertising of ordinary buttons as "unbreakable."

My meagre observations indicate that the buttons that "fail to retain retentive condition" invariably have the retaining thread unravel as though the end that should have been tied off was either not tied or has come out of its knot.

The symptom starts with a loose thread loop that once pulled provides simple removal of the buttons.

By the way, I recently had access to a collection of assorted buttons (a 60L drum full) and there seems to be no consistency in style/colour/thickness/shape and hole count. (Wife works at an "Op shop" and we've got the job of solving the button accumulation. They were packed into 500ml bottles and sold that way.)

Have you also determined the critical number for wire coathangers? There comes a point in life where you never need to buy another coathnager and can even throw away the rusty ones without affecting the total apparent population.

very simple.

when you buy an expensive shirt, you pay more attention to the fit. You purchase it a little more close fitting, so that you look a little more ah streamlined... and subsequently there is more stress and strain on the button fastening system. You may also notice a correlation to pants fastening systems...

Chris

BS.

The quality button and button attaching industry is being repressed by the Velcro industry. It is worse than the oil companies that have bought up all of the high mileage products. This is just another case of the little guy being manipulated by the big political corporations.

1. I do not buy "close-fitting" clothing, because the LAST thing I need is stream-lining- I need something that increases the apparent bulk.

2. No correlation with the belt line.

Another intriguing observation- the "extra" replacement buttons one often finds attached to the shirt tail hardly ever come lose...

Come to think of it I do believe that all of the spare buttons on all of my shirts are still there. This gives me an idea...I'm going to open an on line business to sell and trade these buttons!

Do I have any customers?

shouldn't your teenage daughter be sewing for you? (if you trained her right. )

Sadly she was trained by my XXXXX-wif. I'm still trying to break her of the belief that she is a princess!

well that makes one of us...

don't they feed you down there? I guess not... you coming from the skinny part of the continent...

Have you noticed that when you buy an expensive dress shirt, there is invariably a little packet attached that contains a spare button and thread?

This clearly contains the implicit suggestion that you think about sewing on your own buttons from the very start. Or is it, in fact, that the purchaser of such shirts is expected to have dedicated wardrobe personnel who will carefully stow away the matching button for its inevitable need, likewise probably checking the buttons on your new shirt to ensure they are not a bit loose, and fixing when they are....

In my opinion the vast majority of buttons that are lost, take their leave because there is no proper knot to secure the end of the thread. I suspect that these are attached by sewing machine, whereas the buttons which stay attached have been manually sewn in a sweatshop. This might explain why cost of shirt is unrelated to button loss - higher end may tend to be more mechanized.

I question whether a machine has been designed which is capable of sewing on a button and finishing that job with a knot....

It is obvious that they need a good mechanical solution.

I suggest "Thread lock". Something like "Lock Tite". That's for threads isn't it?

BAB

Sorry!

They wil never do Manual job. It is the matter of Production Cost!

That's only for screw-on buttons. On your full metal jacket.

That is a fashion that could catch on with the young studs.

They tell me that fashions go in cycles. Maybe it is that time again?

BAB

With the trend toward smaller vehicles.. could be next.

No buttons to lose, anyway! (unless you set the breastplate with carbuncles rubies baleus)

As soon as I started reading your post (i.e. before I came to your point 1.), I thought: I bet he wears more expensive shirts than me. I only ever buy cheap ones and the buttons never come off (I'm pretty sure they: the shirts, don't wear out any quicker either).

You didn't mention two hole and four hole buttons. The shirt I am wearing has four hole buttons; they look as though they have been sewn on by machine.

Not So Smart may have unwittingly landed on an answer to this dilemma. I too have noticed that the shirts equipped with spare buttons seem to retain all their buttons longer.

Ooo! I done good!? By accident.

This is turning into a bathtub breaking post really fast!

Many years ago, my mother bought a device called a buttoneer. It used strong plastic strings to attach buttons. If you have ever bought an article of cloths, or shoes that had a label held in place by a plastic string that was imbedded into the clothing, or had the shoes held together by that plastic string, then you have seen the buttoneer device. The only difference was that the buttoneer strings were only just long enough to make one half loop through two holes in the button, and then through the cloths behind it. I have had to learn to go nakid because I have run out of them buttoneer strings. Any one know where I an get more of them strings? ( My neighbors would sure thank you)

I remember the buttoneer- sold on late night television as I recall. I wonder if it is still around?

http://www.asseenontv.com/prod-pages/buttoneer.html

Thank you for doing my homework for me. I just never bothered to look.

No wonder you didn't pass calculus

Congratulations Drew

If The Shirts are being Ironed manually, the quality of the thread can be in question: Some polyester thread cannot stand the heat like cotton thread can! Therefore, they deteriorate after several treatments by the hot tip of the iron. Cotton thread are more durable in such circumstances.

The other cause could be, as some have noted, a bad automated button sewing process that do not anchor the ends of the thread in the process. It runs faster. You can notice this when you see a loose end and pull it---> the whole thread comes unraveled and the button falls!! Usually, these machines require a minimum of thread loops to avoid the untimely unraveling of the thread and they are set to cut off the end under the cloth (on the inside) and not on top of the button. If not set properly or.... the thread is cut off on top or the number of loops is too few, then the thread can start pulling off and unravel.

Sewing machines lay the thread differently from the way a manual needle and thread operation does. You can unravel a stiched edge by just pulling on one end at the edge of a stiched line! two threads are used.

The problem is often the thread.
When I do sewing it's proper 'man sewing' with thick thread and leather (we won't mention the spandex and rubber...)
"That colour doesn't match dear!" (mrs Cat)
"Yeah...so?" (Del, I just don't get all the "this doesn't go with that" nonsense)
What you need is a six inch nail with a hole drilled through it for a needle and some Dacron B50 bowstring thread... 50 pound breaking strain (B.S)...you won't get any buttons falling off then.

Acxtually I've just made a bowstring with linnen thread, it was V thin but was still about 10 pound B.S (three plies each of 5 threads made up like a rope)
Del

Why not the conventional 3 or 7 or 19 threads/ply?

I dunno... I just did the arithmetic and made the string the right weight, it was only for a 30 lb re-enactment bow.
Del

Cool - horses for courses.