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HOW TO FIX A BUTTONHOLE

DIYS / 
July 2020

Header including three images, the left image with a close-up shot of a button, the middle image is an image of the button-fly on a pair of jeans, and the right image is of thread and a small pair of scissors.Header including three images, the left image with a close-up shot of a button, the middle image is an image of the button-fly on a pair of jeans, and the right image is of thread and a small pair of scissors.

It happens to the best of us. After years of squeezing our jeans button through its hole or forcing our Trucker Jacket closed over our chilly chests, our trusted buttonholes are finally warped and gaping — too big to be of any use. This, says Levi’s® tailor Jen Sharkey, is an easily fixable problem. You can easily shrink and reshape your buttonholes, so the clothes you love to put on stay on. All you need is a needle and thread. And, of course, these instructions.
Close up image of the button fly on a pair of medium wash denim jeans.Close up image of the button fly on a pair of medium wash denim jeans.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

  • Needle
  • Thread
  • Your garment

STEP ONE

Thread your needle with both ends of a length of thread, leaving a loop on one end.

Image of a needle and thread to show how to thread the needle through and leaving a loop on one end.

STEP TWO

Figure 8 stitch your thread through the stretched ends of the buttonhole, pulling firmly to tighten the hole back to its original shape.

Image of the Levi's® Tailor creating a figure 8 stitch on the pair of jeans.

STEP THREE

Once your hole is back to the right size, secure its shape by looping several stitches around the hole where you started.

Image of secure a stitch's shape by looping several stitches around the hole where it was started on a pair of jeans.

STEP FOUR

Finish your stitch with a knot, or by winding the thread back and forth through the denim, then trimming the thread.

Image of the Levi's® Tailor finishing a stitch with a knot by winding the thread back and forth through the denim jeans.

STEP FIVE

Put your pants on!

Levi's® Tailor Jen Sharkey holding up a pair of jeans, showing the repaired buttonhole on the button fly of a pair of jeans.

We’ve got plenty of DIY projects for you to try at home. Check them out.