Tutorial: Sew a Hook and Eye on a Garment

Over the weekend I refashioned a dress into a skirt for my daughter-in-law, Jenny. She loved everything about the dress except the feel of the bodice. You can read about that alteration here. While sewing on the hook and eye, which keeps the skirt from putting pressure on the zipper, I decided to write down the steps. It's actually quite easy to hand sew this tiny notion onto a garment, so if you find that one of the pieces is loose, get a needle and thread and stitch it back on before it's lost forever. 

Hook and eye parts are easy to find in the sewing section of any major store. They used to come sewn onto cards (like buttons) but now come in these handy little plastic container. You can usually find them in a silver or chrome-like color and black.

Step 1

1. The first step is choosing your pieces. Pick the color that best coordinates with your garment and take out a hook and an eye. Thread two 18" lengths of coordinating thread onto one needle. (see photo Step 1)

Step 2

2. Tie all four ends into one knot and cut off the excess thread below the knot. Now as you sew, you will be sewing four threads in each stitch. This means fewer stitches, which will be heaven-sent later.

Step 3 (right side of garment)

3. Look at the zipper from the right side (or outside) of the garment. The hook goes on the left side and the eye will go on the right. Mark the left side with the needle and turn the garment so that you can work from the inside.

Step 4 (inside of garment)

4. Now you are ready to begin sewing. Slip the needle into the garment about 1/2" from the edge. (In photo 4 the needle is pointing to the spot.) Pull the thread through and pop the knot into the waistband. 

Step 5

5. Using the little circles at the bottom of the hook, slide the hook onto the needle so that the opening is facing the inside of the garment. Take a second stitch close to where the hook will be and run the needle up through the circle again.

Step 6

6. Pull the thread tight. Take two more stitches very close to the first one, always starting in the fabric outside of the circle and sticking the needle through the circle. This will secure half of the hook.

Step 7

7. To move to the opposite circle, take two stitches in the space between the circles. It's easiest to make these stitches if the hook can move and you break the stitch into tiny steps: needle goes through circle, needle goes into and out of fabric, pull taut. Do the same with the second stitch.

Step 8

 8. Sew the second circle down by making three stitches. Knot your thread by running the needle through the loop in the thread before pulling it taut. Finally bury the thread ends by slipping the needle into the fabric and out about 1/2 inch away and cut.

Step 9

 9. Now you're ready to sew the loop part on the opposite side of the waistband. Make a knot at the end of the thread and pop it into the fabric just as in #4. Try to line up the eye directly across from the hook. 

Step 10

10. Sew three stitches in the circle part of the eye, then jump to the other circle making two stitches in the center (see step 7). 

Step 11

11. Allow the eye to wiggle some as you sew and break down the stitch into tiny parts (see step 7). Make a knot and bury your thread (see steps 7 and 8).

Step 12

12. All finished. This photo is from the inside of the skirt, showing the hook and eye closed. 

Step 13

13. The finished garment shown from the outside of the skirt. Notice that the hand stitches do not show and the zipper almost reaches to the end. The hook and eye will take stress off the zipper end so that it doesn't slide open or break.

Did you find this tutorial helpful? How can I improve it?

Faster Fastener

My granddaughter is just four.  She attends pre-K, which means she  wears uniform pants that are very difficult to fasten.  

The zipper is short (maybe 3 inches, but I doubt it) so the zipper head is a mess when it gets stuck and, worse, there are a button and a hook and eye. This means, of course, that going to the bathroom is difficult because she has so many different fasteners to deal with. Holding it till she gets home is not an option, and the teacher can't fasten 30 kids' pants.  So her mom, Jenny, decided that we needed to come up with a better solution.  Enter Velcro! 

First we had to remove the button (easy peasy) and the metal hook and eye (not lemon squeasy).  Her pants have the heavy duty hook and eye sets that require lots of interfacing for stabilization.  No matter what I tried, I ended up with a big hole once the metal parts were out. The solution was to cover the hole with the Velcro....that works.  The button hole is on the inside tab, so it doesn't show.

To remove the hook and eye pieces, I snipped a small hole near the metal hook, then cut around the hook on the two short sides and one long side.  I pulled the inside piece of the hook through the hole I'd made and clipped it out trying not to disturb the inside.  I removed the second half of the hook and eye pair, again making a big hole.  You can try to separate the two metal pieces, but that is very difficult and tends to shred the fabrics, which will cause other problems. 


Once the old fasteners were out, I cut two sets of 1/2 inch Velcro hook and loop tape about 3/4 inches long.  I placed one piece against the outside edge covering the hole and stitched it down around the edges. 
Then I added the second piece about 1/8 inch from the first. 

This part is important if you have little kids: the second piece is the opposite of the first (see the picture above).  So, if you stitch a hook first, you need to stitch a loop section beside it.  On the opposite side of the waistband stitch down the matching hook and loop pieces so that they line up with the first ones.  

Now to answer your question why I didn't just stitch one long piece: it's important that the two pieces be different so that they DON'T stick when Marley misses the mark.  She won't have to struggle to get the parts of the closure to work correctly because they work only when they are matched correctly.  This is important because she is, after all, only four.  

There you have it.  Marley can now fasten and unfasten her own pants, and they look especially darling, don't you agree?