Nine Hole Buttons

This is a quick overview of the process for making 9 hole buttons from scratch. What's a 9-hole button? It's a button with extra holes that lets you sew them on with letters, numbers, symbols or simple designs. I've only monogrammed my cuffs, but scoochmaroo took them to an entirely other levels with her amazing custom shirt.

These are the same size as regular shirt buttons and were inspired by this post on Craft:blog and these much larger buttons from ABC Buttons.

In brief the steps are: 1) Make an original by lathing some jeweler's wax to shape. 2) Drill the grid of holes (using the technique from this Instructable). 3) Make a silicone mold of the original. 4) Make a cast of the button in polyurethane resin. 5) trim and sand the back of the button smooth. 6) repeat steps 4 & 5 a bunch of times. 7) sew.

Thanks to scoochmaroo for taking the time to test them in an actual sewing environment. (And making an awesome gift with them.)

There are a few more words on the process on my blog if you're so inclined.