DIY button cuff links (or interchangeable buttons)

April 5, 2010 at 9:02 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

There is actually a funny story as to why I made cuff links.  In my halfway packed to move (at an unknown time to an unknown location) state of affairs, I lost the iron. Not that I really use it much for ironing clothes, just for crafting.  But as it would happen, I actually needed the iron to iron clothes, since the only shirt of my husbands that wasn’t wrinkled had french cuffs that require cuff links.  Then I tried to remember where I had seen those little fake cuff links that came with his shirt.  Yeah – those are smaller than an iron therefore harder to find.  In the end I decided to make cuff links with the materials I had yet to pack.

You will need: scissors, clear elastic cording (like they make bracelets with,) and 4 buttons or similarly sized bits or bobs.  As you can see, I tried my buttons out first to make sure that they fit through the buttonholes. I know they are bright yellow and totally do not match the shirt.  It looks better than the sleeves flopping open.  Really.

Now all you have to do is ties the buttons together with the elastic cording.  I left the back sides facing each other, and threaded the cording through all of the holes ending with my cord in the center gap.

All you have to do then is not the cord.  I stuck my fingers between the two buttons as I tied the cords together to leave enough space between them.  I thought about it, and decided that a clothes pin would make it a lot easier to tie the knots.  So, clip the cords in the center with a clothespin, and tie at least 5 knots.  (You can also dab some glue on them to make sure it doesn’t come undone in the future.)

To put it on just slip the button through the hole, leaving one button on each side.  The elastic cord allows the buttons to stretch as you are putting it on, but they pop back into place and stay put while you are wearing it.

Really quick and easy, and there are many applications that I can think of off of the top of my head.  Large decorative buttons that go on things like purses could be interchangeable.  You could make clothes with all button holes and switch up the colors of the buttons as often as you like.  Handmade decorative buttons that can’t go into the wash could be removable.  And you don’t have to limit this to buttons.  Anything that has a hole, or could have a hole, could be used.