Replies

1. 
   carolfresia | Mar 25, 2004 05:21pm | #1

   Merryll,

   I don't know if you can buy covered snaps--I thought you had to make them. There are instructions for covering snaps in Claire Shaeffer, Couture Sewing Techniques, p. 97. The Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Sewing has illustrated instructions, too. It's a little fussy to do, but not basically hard and you'll have snaps that perfectly match your garment.

   Carol

1. 
   Merryll | Mar 25, 2004 05:50pm | #2

   Thanks for the info on covering snaps, Carol.  Actually, I have Claire Shaeffer's book.  What I cannot find, however, are the large-sized snaps. I have asked at fabric stores, and no one has any clue. Am I at a dead end?

   Merryll

1. 
   carolfresia | Mar 25, 2004 06:22pm | #3

   Hmmm....I have some large snaps, though maybe not as big as you're thinking. I'm quite sure I bought them at Joann's, but that was a good three years ago and in Los Angeles. These are probably 1/2" in diameter--is that large enough? Gosh, I was in the Danbury Joann's just yesterday, and didn't look at snaps!

   Carol

2. 
   AmyC | Mar 25, 2004 07:57pm | #4

   Have you tried SnapSource?  Here's a link.  I don't know if they have snaps that are large enough ..

   http://www.snapsource.com/

3. 
   Elisabeth | Mar 26, 2004 02:59pm | #5

   I saw those large snaps at the local JoAnn's a couple of days ago. I was surprised, especially since we have a small and not so great JoAnn's!

   E.

1. 
   Merryll | Mar 26, 2004 04:30pm | #6

   Thank you, all of you, for your help. I am off to JoAnne's!

   BTW, yesterday I took a close look at the under side of one of the snaps on my Armani jackets. I discovered both snap sides are made in two pieces, exactly the way our covered buttons are made. The outside piece is covered in silk charmuse, which is held in place by the teeth inside it and encapsulated by the positive or negative portions of the snap, which are pushed underneath the covering piece.

   Merryll

1. 
   FitnessNut | Mar 26, 2004 08:33pm | #7

   Wow. I've never seen a snap covered like a button before. I doubt they're available at the retail level except in a garment manufacturing area. Good luck finding them! I have my fingers crossed for you!

2. 
   carolfresia | Mar 26, 2004 11:36pm | #8

   Merryll,

   That's really interesting about the Armani snaps. If I ever find out where to buy those, I'll post here. I looked this morning for snaps at Banksville in Norwalk, but they had less inventory than Joann's. Good luck!

   Carol

4. 
   sewnutt | Jul 21, 2004 12:50am | #9

   I worked in a leather cleaners and we used a lot of snaps --light duty, heavy duty, and what we called spring snaps.      We had a very old button covering machine that we adapted to use the dyes to enable us to set the snaps on this machine.  What a help that was--saving us from having to use a hand tool!  Thus we could cover buttons as well.       The greatest challenge was to produce a covered snap like some of the respondents described.  We had the blanks to make covered buttons and literally pounded a hole with a nail in the underside of the covered button to enable the stem of the snap top to fit into it!  It meant many failures before success.   When I worked in this facility, I did numerous searches to try and find the supplies for these covered snaps but could not locate them.            We frequently had snaps, buttons, and zippers fall apart in the cleaning process.  ALL of these parts were saved by the staff and we frquently resorted to supergluing a snap top on as snap tops with logos or designs are just not available!        So often these items are manufacturer only.  

1. 
   Merryll | Jul 21, 2004 03:27pm | #10

   Connie, thank you for your thoughtful, insightful resonse. It's wonderful to be assured from an insider that dry cleaners continue to go to great lengths to repair clothing damaged in the cleaning process, or simply brought in damaged.

   As for my original question, I now have a large supply of those large-sized snaps Carol and others mentioned.  I'd attended a Sandra Betzina workshop in nearby Hartsville, NY, and I raided their notions board like nobody's business! I'll simply use the traditional method of covering them and be satisfied with that.

   Merryll