Hook Me Up!

Hook and bar fastener on pants and sewn on hook and eye fastener on pants

Transcript

Hey everyone and welcome to Not Your Normal Adaptations; the podcast for atypical solutions for independent living. I'm your host, Teresa.

This is episode 2, Hook Me Up!

One of the themes you'll notice resurface at Not Your Normal Adaptations is function and form. It looks good, but doesn't scream adapted.

Let's start off this theme with pants. As you know, there's elastic waist, there's drawstring, and there's zip fly pants. Today we are focusing on zip fly. Typically there's a button at the top of the zipper that holds everything together, especially if they're jeans.

Without two separately functioning hands, that button can be a pain. I know that the adapted button hook tool exists, but it's one more thing you have to keep track of. I don't like carrying around extra stuff that'll end up being forgotten, dropped, or lost. Nothing creates more joy than stopping off at the restroom right before a flight, dropping the button hook tool, and it rolls across the floor. Yuck and no thanks.

What to do instead?

It's a score when pants have a hook and clasp or sometimes called a hook and bar fastener instead of a button. I find these much easier to do and undo. You most often find these on dress pants.

What if you find a great pair of pants, but it's a button at the top? Well, if the pants look good on you and fit well, you have to buy them. Cardinal rule. You can purchase sew-on hook and eye closures to replace the button closure.

  • Start by removing the button. If we're talking a jeans button, that's likely going to take a serious tool, so you may need to find a friend with a workshop or garage.

  • Next, stitch up the button hole; a zigzag stitch on a sewing machine works perfectly for this.

  • Once the button hole is closed, sew the hook part of the fastener to the underside of the former button hole.

  • Lastly, on the fabric side where the button used to be, attach the eye portion of the fastener.

  • If you want to get super fancy, you can sew the button on top of the stitched up button hole so the pants look buttoned.

If you don't sew, a seamstress, seamster, or tailor can also do this for you.

You might be thinking, why not Velcro? Velcro is great. I love Velcro, but not for pants. One too many fries and you bend over to pick up your napkin and [VELCRO RIPPING].

That's it for today's podcast. For pictures and a transcript of this episode, head on over to notyournormaladaptations.com

Thanks for tuning in!