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Have you ever lost a button while on travel? I’ve had that happen and I can guarantee two things:
- Even through I’ve brought spare buttons with me on the trip, none of them really match the one that was lost.
- It will take me hours and trips to multiple fabric stores to find a button that does not quite match the button that was lost. This leaves me with either replacing all the buttons, or having one button that is slightly off from the rest.
I noticed that many of my outdoor technical garments had a spare button sewn on to the hem, right on the seam. This was an “Aha!” moment for me. Instead of storing the spare buttons in a button box, I now sew them to the garment where they may always be found. That means that the spare button is available on travel. I do my sewing when I take the sales tags off the garment. That ensures that the button is actually attached to the garment when I wear it. I’ve found that the button doesn’t poke me if I place it on the lower side seam of the garment. It’s nice insurance for 3 minutes worth of work. Think about doing this the next time you buy a garment with spare buttons.
Lady Light Travel 
Lightbulb moment….so simple, why haven´t I thought of this before…thank you
Great idea; I have a drawer full of the buttons that came with the blouse, pants or jacket, but it would take much longer to find the right button than it would take to sew it into the garment at the beginning.
Great! thanks for sharing this idea. I love reading your blog.
What a fantastic idea! I will definitely do this. :)
What a GENIUS idea. Those spare buttons have bugged me for ages – what to do with them? Fantastic idea.
Don’t wear it thru ariport security.
Men’s pants usually have an extra button sewn onto them. Docker’s conviently places theirs on the outside of the pocket lining. DH went thru many x-ray scans at the Vancouver airport because of this button. 30 minutes later he was free to go.
I take it was a metal button?
No. Heavy duty plastic and a very sensitive sensor. Now we know if it happens again. This was in 2010 when the xray machines were all the rage. We also think we were ‘selected’ because they alerted on a 2″ square magnet in my suitcase.
Thank you for your blog. I have learnt and (confirmed) alot from this and your links.
Sounds like an over zealous agent to me. Sometimes asking for the supervisor helps.
To be fair, some things look like others. I’ve been told that chocolate has the same density as C4 in the x-ray machine. That makes it a hard job for the agents to know what is OK and what isn’t.
At least now you can point out the button to them!
I also do this to avoid that search for the missing button therefor having to have a container for those said buttons and it is nice to know that the button is there for the next owner of the garment when I send it to the op shop.