How to Make Children's Jeans Fasten More Easily

Children acquire many basic skills while growing up, including using fasteners such as snaps and buttons to hold clothing in place. It would seem apparent that children's clothing should have fasteners to accommodate the learning curve involved, but more often than not, parents and children have a hard time due to tight fittings or misaligned parts. Thankfully, there are several ways to make children's clothing fasten more easily.

Things You'll Need

• Measuring tape
• Food-grade oil
• Beeswax
• Microfiber cloth
• Work surface
• Flat-headed screwdriver
• Pliers
• Snaps
• Buttons
• Sewing kit or sewing machine
• Scissor
• Seam ripper (optional)
• Hook-and-loop fastener tape
• Slide fasteners

Instructions

1. Measure your child's waist with a measuring tape to determine whether tight-fitting jeans have made fastening difficult. If so, move or remove/replace the fastener, add hook-and-loop or sliding fasteners or completely replace the jeans.

2. Rub food-grade oil, such as coconut or palm, or other non-toxic oil and/or beeswax inside of the connecting parts of a snap fastener to make snapping easier. Work the oil and/or beeswax into the snap by closing/opening it repeatedly until it snaps/unsnaps with ease. When finished, wipe away any excess grease with a microfiber cloth.

3. Move or remove/replace the fastener. Sometimes jeans have misaligned snaps, pieces, or buttons/buttonholes.

   To remove/replace a snap fastener, slide the edge of the head of a flat-headed screwdriver between the jean fabric and the snap parts. Gently rotate the screwdriver handle to the right and left until the snap pries from the fabric and pull away with pliers. Replace with a new fastener snap or other fastener following the manufacturer's instructions included with the product.
   To move a button, cut the thread that attaches the button to the jeans. Align the button with the hole and reattach or attach a smaller button. If you have sewing experience, consider widening the buttonhole, as manufacturers often produce jeans with holes that are too small for easy fastening. Place the jeans on a flat work surface and cut into the ends of the buttonhole---where the seams around the hole meet---1 to 2mm. Try to fasten the jeans. If necessary, repeat. When you can finally fasten the jeans with ease, re-sew the seam around the hole by hand or with a sewing machine so that it doesn't widen further.

4. Add a hook-and-loop or sliding fastener to the jeans. Hook-and-loop fasteners created by companies such as Velcro USA Inc. and WBC Industries pull apart/hook together using special tape---one piece has hooks and the other small loops. Sliding fasteners also use a hook/loop system that a child can quickly slide into place or unhook as needed. To attach and/or sew these products to jeans, follow the manufacturer's instructions included with the product.

Tips & Warnings

• If you don't have a measuring tape, simply place two of your fingers between the top of the jeans and your child's waist. If you can't easily place your fingers between the two, then the jeans are too tight.

• Consider purchasing baggy jeans or jeans with elastic waistbands for your children instead of using fasteners. Children---particularly young or disabled children---find these types easier to wear. In addition, children can grow into these pants, ultimately saving on clothing costs.

• Never attach adhesive-backed fasteners to children's jeans without sewing a seam around the fastening tape to hold it in place. The adhesive can break down over time causing the tape to peel away from the fabric.

References

• The Snap Source, Inc.
• Velcro USA Inc.
• WBC Industries