DIY Covered Buttons for Pins and Magnets

We’ve arrived at our new town and have settled into our temporary apartment (sort of). Moving is hard! It has been important to me to have things seem as homey as possible to make the transition a little easier. For me that means little touches and pretty things to make this unfamiliar place feel more like home. Most of my craft supplies are in storage and shopping is limited here in our small town so I needed an easy project. The solution? I whipped up these pins and magnets in just a few minutes with materials found at the local big-box store.

I’ll show you how!

You will need:
-Fabric of your choosing (scraps work great)
-Covered button kits (available in the notions aisle of fabric and craft stores. I bought button kits in 3/4″ size for my thumbtacks and 7/8″ size for my magnets)
-Flathead thumbtacks
-Adhesive magnetic buttons (3/4″ size works perfectly for the 7/8″ buttons)
-E6000 adhesive (or other glue)

Start by covering your buttons.

1. Each button will have two parts: a front and a back. Remove the shank from the back of the button with pliers. Just kind of pinch and bend and pull and the shank should come off fairly easily.

2. Cut a piece of fabric roughly twice the diameter of the button you are covering. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t even have to be a circle. Just allow enough material to easily cover the front of the button and overlap on the back.

3. Sandwich your fabric, wrong-side up, between the white part of the covered button tool and the front of the button, with the rounded side facing downward.

4. Push the fabric and button front down into the white flexible part of the covered button tool. Trim any extra fabric so that the back of the button will go on easier.

5. Fold the fabric in neatly. Check for any gaps or spaces where the fabric doesn’t cover the button front and adjust as necessary.

6. Position the back of the button over the folded fabric. Make sure it is centered.

7. Using the blue plastic piece of the covered button tool, push down on the back of the button. You should feel it almost snap into place. Sometimes it takes some muscle. You may find that you have to trim a bit more fabric at this point if the back isn’t snapping on easily.

8. The back of your button should look something like picture 8.

9. The front of your button should look something like picture 9.

Now you can choose if you’d like to make pins or magnets. I did both. To make a pin, add a nice-sized glob (very scientific, I know) of E6000 adhesive to the back of the 3/4″ covered button and simply push the head of the thumbtack into the wet adhesive and let it dry. You may want to let it dry overnight to make sure it is well set. You could use hot glue as well, but the E6000 is more permanent and will hold longer and better.

The magnets are even easier. Just remove the backing of the adhesive magnetic button and push it firmly into the back of the covered button. That’s it. It’s ready to use.

These would make a cute gift packaged in a small metal tin or a little bottle. You could use scraps of cloth from a special occasion–a wedding or bridesmaid dress or a baby quilt maybe–to make an extra meaningful gift.

Covered buttons are fun, easy and quick. I have actually made them using patterned paper and gluing a brad to the back for card-making or scrap-booking as well.

Our temporary apartment here in New York may still have stacks of unpacked boxes and no place to put them, but at least I have cute magnets on my fridge! Somehow that makes life seem a little better.

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Comments

Jill says
August 5, 2013 at 3:30 pm
These are so cute! I know what you mean about moving! I've just moved into my own condo which was my THIRD move in 6 months. I'm tired of it! lol I'm so glad I can be somewhere permanent now. It's definitely the little things that make the difference!
Trista Laborn says
August 9, 2013 at 6:30 pm
This is NICE! Stopping by from the DIY craft blog hop!
Yun Kelly says
August 10, 2013 at 1:45 pm
Really cute! Thank you for sharing. I'll have to try this for sure!

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