Pragmatic Pandemic Suspender Buttons

This is not a sexy button.  This is not a button that will make you say “Wow, I gotta print this button.”  Instead, this is a button that Just Works™.  In fact, if you're using this button properly, no one will ever even see it.

Several years ago I switched entirely to wearing suspenders instead of a belt after listening to this podcast.  https://freakonomics.com/podcast/how-did-the-belt-win/  Why was I trying to cinch my pants against my waist using a belt to keep them upright, when what I really needed was suspenders?  Was, as the podcast suggested, “the dork factor is too high”?  After the briefest period of soul searching, I decided suspenders was the only logical choice.  Rather than run around altering all of my shorts and pants, I tried out the “low stakes” method of clip-on suspenders.

Clip on suspenders work well enough in the short term, but have several flaws that appear over time.  The part that clips on can get bent slightly, leading to a decreased ability to grip the fabric.  Alternatively, over time, the clips can also wear away at the fabric, either smoothing it or just abrading it away.  The main selling point of clip on suspenders is that you can quickly add them to any garment without having to pull out a needle and thread.  Thus it was, despite receiving a pair of button suspenders for Christmas, that inertial lead me to continue using clip on suspenders.

That was until March of 2020 when the entire world began shutting down.  A few days after California began shutting down, I had a little extra time on my hands and not enough productive ways to keep myself busy.  (Rage tweeting the former-president being a less productive past time).  I decided to finally sew buttons into my garments to use the button suspenders.

If you're reading this, you can probably already guess the punchline:  I didn't have any buttons.

While buttons are easy to accumulate, from kids' clothes to things found in the dryer, I didn't have any of the /really/ large buttons (~1" / 25.4 mm in diameter) required to work with the suspenders I owned.  This is, of course, a trivial problem for anyone armed with a computer, OpenSCAD, and a 3D printer.

That same day I had printed stacks of buttons for use in my shorts and pants.

They're not flashy, fancy, or sexy.  When sewn inside of the waistband, they aren't even noticeable at all - aside from the little tell-tale black “x” on the outside.  (If I wanted, I could switch back to belts, which would neatly cover this “x” up.)  I made them in white PLA, because that's what was loaded in my printer at the time, and printed at 100% infill, they've gone through the wash countless times in the last 22 months, and are very likely to outlast the garments they're sewn into.  If, after this damned pandemic is in the rear-view mirror, we should get a chance to hang out, chances are I'll be wearing these and when the topic of 3D printing shows up, I'll be able to show how useful 3D design and custom printing can be.

Installation:  These work well for me, about 2 inches down from the top of the waistband and about 3-4 inches apart.

#ButtonsNotBelts