Faux Button Placket (No Buttonholes Involved!)

With an ever-growing to-do list, I'm always looking for short cuts. Which leads me to a confession....

I hate buttonholes.

Phew, glad I got that off my chest! For the longest time, I refused to sew buttonholes. I think my fear stems mostly from the fact that I've been sewing for the last 5 1/2 years on a basic sewing machine, and my sewing machine hates buttonholes. What I mean is, my machine knows how to make buttonholes, it just flat out refuses to make them. And when it does, it usually takes me 2-3 times of unpicking stitches before I have semi-presentable results.

And who wants to spend an hour on buttonholes? Ain't nobody got time for that. That's how I came up with an idea to make a faux button placket!

Now, I'm not going to promise you that this method cuts your buttonhole making time in half or anything like that (and actually it may take a little bit longer), but if you're like me and have a machine that just doesn't like to make buttonholes, or if you're not ready to make the plunge into making buttonholes, this tutorial will give you a finished button placket that people will never guess is a fake. Plus, since we're using velcro, a faux placket makes it much easier for little ones to dress themselves.

Ready to add a faux placket to everything??

SUPPLIES: finished top, velcro, disappearing ink marker, buttons at least 1 inch in diameter or more, sewing machine, needle and thread.

First, you'll need a finished top that needs a button placket. This particular top above is a peplum top I made as part of The Sewing Rabbit's fall 2013 collection, minus the piping. (Come visit me on The Sewing Rabbit to learn how to make a peplum top next week!)

ONE: first, measure your shirt from neckline to the bottom and subtract an inch.
TWO: next, separate your velcro so that the "hook" part, or the scratchy part, is separate from the soft "loop" part of the velcro. Cut a length of the loop portion of the velcro only,  as long as the measurement you wrote down above.
THREE: pin your loop tape to your shirt, leaving a 1/2 inch margin on both the top and bottom.
FOUR: sew around all sides of your tape to attach it to your shirt.

FIVE: now you'll need to cut squares of the "hook" portion of the velcro to attach to the other side of your button placket. You'll want each square of hook tape to be slightly smaller that your button (so people won't be able to see your stitch lines), so trim if needed.
SIX: cut out as many squares of hook tape as you have buttons. See how my hook tape is slightly smaller than my button?
SEVEN: now use your disappearing ink marker to make marks where you want your buttons to go on the underside of your button placket.
EIGHT: pin each square of hook tape on the marks you just made and sew to secure.

Here is what the other side of your button placket will look like as soon as you've sewn your hook squares down! Now all that's left is to sew your buttons on right on top of your squares to hide your stitches.

And now you have a beautiful faux button placket with no buttonholes involved! I'll be no one will even notice it's a fake :)