tip of the day - marking button placement on shirts
July 3, 2008 by Chloe Findlay-Harder
Filed under Arts & Crafts
I’ve finished my DH’s new shirt (you’ll see it tomorrow) and wanted to share another tip that helps me when I’m sewing shirts with lots of buttons (like men’s dress shirts).
I’ve sewn the button holes, opened them up (I like to use a stitch ripper to open button holes). I’ve laid the shirt over my ironing board and folded the front of the shirt to mark the button placements:
Instead of just marking them with a fabric marker or chalk, I like to insert pins through the button holes, and into the other side of the shirt front (just the front, not the back). You can now hang the shirt up and check the button placement when it’s hanging naturally, as opposed to flat on a table.
Sew the buttons on as you would normally - just remove pins as you go 
I find that this allows me to be more accurate and allows more fine tuning - after all, if I’m making a shirt - I want it to turn out well!
image: C Findlay-Harder
Another great sewing shortcut tip! Thanks Chloe
great tip! :o)