I suppose it’s time for me to buck up and admit that winter is coming. I don’t know why it shocks me every year, but I’m a South Texas girl who loves the sunshine. So to spruce up my trusty M&S winter coat, I swapped out the big plasticy black buttons for fabric covered buttons. It’s a quick DIY job that brightens up a winter coat (without having to shell out for a new one!
This project only took a few minutes to cover the buttons and a few more minutes to sew them on. It’s easily an afternoon project (depending on how good you are at sewing buttons!) The ditsy floral fabric is from Floppy Fabrics and I found the button cover kit at Tiger (although any fabric store or haberdashery should have them. Just make sure they fit your buttonhole). You’ll also need strong, all purpose thread for sewing the buttons on. And a coat obviously.
You’re button kit will have instructions. Basically you need to cut a circle of fabric larger than the circumference of the button. Fold it in over the inner piece, then press the backing piece firmly in place (you can also do a slip stitch to hold the fabric in place around the inner disc, but that’s a lot of extra work). A couple of my buttons popped off after my first wear because I wasn’t firm enough. A couple drops of glue or a stronger grip should do the trick.
And there you have it. I picked this fabric because it was bright and tonal. A contrasting fabric would have been cute too, but I like to keep my options open for accessorising with scarves. Now that I think of it, a geometric black and white print would have been nice too. And for full disclosure, I covered my buttons at the end of the season last year so that it would be a nice surprise when I pulled it out of the closet, which explains the sunshine and long hair in the photo!
