Product Comparison: 2 Types of Covered Buttons by Dritz

In the last post, I was less than pleased that every single covered button fell apart within moments of finishing the white wool vest. To be utterly fair, that was the result of operator error pure and simple. Why? Because I made the button holes the same size as the buttons. I am supposed to add 2 mm to the button measurement to allow for the height of the button. This is where having a sewing machine which does a lot of this for me makes me forgetful of such details when I switch to a machine which does not think of this for me. *sigh*

Listening patiently as I sobbed over the fate of my lovely vest, Jane suggested that I try the covered buttons with the little teeth on them. Not having tried them before, I went out and got some. Tonight, I sat down to do them and it suddenly hit me: why not do a head-to-head comparison and record it on my blog? Yay! Fetching my camera, that’s exactly what I decided to do. So here it is, the comparison!

Here are the products for comparison. Both of them are by Dritz, but one is the “Half Ball Cover Button” kit and the other is the “Craft Cover Button Kit”. The Half Ball kit features little teeth on the inside back of the face and the shank of the button in also attached to this face. The Craft kit features smooth edges and the shank of the button is attached to the back piece.

I started with the Craft kit, because I’m most familiar with these, having used them on 3 vests now.

Here’s what I needed: fabric, marking pencil, the stencil, scissors, the button punch top (blue) and bottom (white), and a button face and back.

I could take up tons of room and post this series of pictures one at a time, but that would take waaaay too long.  You can read the text, or just look at the pretty pictures. hehe

For this process, you first cut out the paper stencil that comes printed on the back of the package.

Place that on your fabric and use a marking pencil to mark out the cut lines. Note: Dritz does offer clear versions of these stencils so you can place motifs perfectly. Very nice!

Cut out your button face.

Place the circle of fabric on top of the white plastic piece that comes with the kit. 

Place one of the round button tops with the round side down (as shown), making sure that everything is centered! Push the button top into the white base, pushing the fabric in as well.

After this, use your finger to push the edges of the fabric circle into the position so that everything is all contained inside the white plastic base.

Once all of the material is tucked into the base, take one of the back pieces and position it on the center of the folded over material.

Place the blue push piece over this so that the shank of the button goes up into the underside of the push piece.

Push the blue piece down until you feel the back of the button “fall” into place. While this can be accomplished by leaning on your thumb, I can’t recommend that. Why? That’s a lot of stress on the joint, and I want to keep using my thumbs for a good long time. Instead, I use a leather mallet.

When the base is snapped in, remove the blue piece and examine the button back. If it looks good to you, it’s time to pop it out of the white plastic piece.

And here’s your beautiful finished button! Notice how beautifully the fabric wraps around the edges, all smooth and attractive. Not bad at all for a total of like 3 minutes of my time.

Alrighty. Now for the new ones that I’ve never done before – the Half Ball Covered Button.

Here’s what I needed: fabric, marking pencil, the stencil, scissors, and a button face and back.

Cut out the stencil from the back of the package. Place it on the fabric to mark it. Cut out the circle of fabric.

Take a button face and lay it face down/shank up on the center of the fabric circle.

The directions on the package recommend using a pencil eraser to hook the fabric over the teeth. For me, the recommended eraser just did not work. I immediately flipped it over and started using the lead, making my fabric ugly really fast. I then switched to a tailor’s awl and that went much better.

Considering this was the very first time I had tried to do this, the hooking part came out fairly well once I found the tool that worked for me. Ultimately, all the fabric needs to be hooked and contained within the bell of the button face.

Once all of the material is hooked into place, fit a button back over the shank which is attached to the inside of the button face. The two pieces snap together with surprisingly little pressure. I’m very pleased with that! I think, once I’ve had some practice, this process could take as little as a couple of minutes. For this first time, it took me about 4 and most of that was trying to find a pencil, then getting the awl.

Here are the finished ones, side by side. Please note that the Craft Covered Button is 3/4″, while the Half Ball Covered Button is 5/8″.

As mentioned above, after some practice, I think the Half Ball version will actually be much faster to complete. Nice, but my real concern is durability. It’s quite irksome to see my husband put on a vest only have button covers snapping off. Unacceptable!

With that in mind, there are two reasons why the Half Ball is the stronger button of the two. First, the teeth. There’s absolutely nothing but pressure holding the two pieces of the Craft Covered Button together, while the Half Ball has the teeth holding the fabric plus the inner rim of the snap back snaps under the teeth. There’s more than just pressure holding these front and back of the Half Ball together.

The second and biggest reason why the Half Ball will easily be able to do a lot more work is that the shank is attached to the inside of the button face, and the back just fits over this. The Craft button has the shank fitted onto the back piece, which snaps into the front piece. If I start pulling too hard on the Craft button once it’s attached and simultaneously pull on the front piece, like I’m unbuttoning my garment, then the two pieces come apart. For the Half Ball, I can yank on it until the cows come home, I’m pulling and yanking on the same piece. The backing is just holding the fabric in place, rather than holding the fabric in place plus holding the button to the garment.

Besides, the Half Ball button literally feels better in my hand. It’s heavier and just feels like it means business. The Craft button is a lovely button, but it’s not meant for hard work. It’s meant for craft fun, and I had just picked the wrong version.

Lesson learned. I shall be replacing all of the covered buttons with this Half Ball version.

Well, I hope you learned something or were at least entertained. Until we meet again, Happy Sewing!

– Dravon

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