Sewing on Pants Hook and Eyes

Dawn Anderson: Hi! I'm Dawn Anderson and I'm showing you how to sew by hand. Right now, we're going to sew on a pants hook and eye. A pants hook and eye is a little different from a regular hook and eye. It's a little wider and a little flatter and it's generally used for waistbands and trousers or skirts. It's sewn on in a similar fashion. Again, the hook is usually on the top side, so you'll take it and line it up to the edge of the fabric. Use your thumb to hold it down and I like to sew on the center one first just to help give it some stability because they tend to move around until you get enough stitches on them. I put maybe two or three stitches in each hole and then we're going to move to the side. Tunnel in between the fabric layers, come up approximately by the holes and then from the underside and then again work from the outside to the inside. Working from the outside to the inside is actually stronger than just sewing between the two holes and your fastener will stay on a lot longer. Now, tunnel through to your third side and come up, straighten that up just a little bit and then come up through the hole in the fastener, again, from the outside to the inside, maybe two or three stitches in each one. Then to knot off, just go ahead and take up a little bit of fabric on the outside, pull your thread through, let's lay it flat, tie your knot, down on to the surface with your thumb and then take your thread, have it go under and then cut your thread, so that your thread end is hidden.

Now, let's place the hook. What I'd like to do with this one, go ahead, put the bar on the hook, close it up, open it back this way and then I'll just take a pencil and mark where the two loops are. Remove the hook and remove the bar carefully and then it will line up to where you put the two marks. Knot your thread and then start from the outside, take up a little bit of fabric, come through the first hole, try to keep it centered as you stitch and then again one or two stitches on each side. Now, with the pants hook and eye you want to sew each side individually. So, to knot it off I go ahead and flip it to the wrong side, knot it off, cut your thread. Go ahead and knot your thread again and then we're going to move on to the second side.

Come up from the underside through the center of the loop, one or two stitches in each hole, move on to the next side then knot it off. That's how you sew on a pants hook and eye.