I spent some time looking for suitable closures for the jacket I’m making, Vogue 1335. The original pattern calls for home-made leather tabs with snaps applied to them. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to produce anything like that so spent a lot of time searching for toggles, buckles, and the like online.
I completely failed to find anything suitable, so tabs it had to be. I got these scraps of cream-coloured ‘leather’ from eBay. I very much doubt it’s real leather but it’s the right colour and texture.
John Lewis supplied a pack of 10mm snaps and pliers for applying them. Those things are fiddly. Here’s my first, rather wonky attempt.
I did better after drawing a lot of guidelines on the wrong side of the leather.
The smaller tabs weren’t so successful. 10mm snaps are a little bit too large so it was difficult to position the second snap without catching the first one in the pliers.
But they don’t look too bad when fastened.
Of course it could all still go wrong because I’ve got to top-stitch them to the jacket yet.
Catherine Daze's Blog 
This is so courageous, I feel like pulling out my mother-in-law’s ancient rosary, and lighting a few candles down in the village. You will do this, and it will be phenomenal, but I’d go slow.
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Bravo, it looks great.
Wow! This is hardcore. I probably would have tried to find a store bought hardware alternative. This is better by far!
They look great! And we know how good you are at top-stitching so you shouldn’t have any trouble with these
I think it was a good choice to make your own and it’s great you have the ability to try rounds until you get the kinks all worked out.
very brave! but they look good so far!
They look great, can’t wait to see the coat!
I’m so excited to see your coat when it’s made up – I love the shape, and think it’s going to look so striking on. And because it’s such a big designer thing I think you’re totally doing the right thing in making your own fastenings when you can’t find the right sort in the shops. I hope they work well!
Looks fantastic! Can’t wait to see it all finished.
I don’t doubt your topstitching abilities at all! Thanks for the inspiration on getting scraps of leather from ebay. I was thinking on trimming some pocket edges on a skirt but didn’t want to buy a whole piece obvs! 🙂
Sometimes you’ve just got to use a bit of ingenuity. Based on what I’m seeing here, I think you’ll be able to pull together an entirely suitable set of closures! I’m currently planning ahead to sew up the portside travel set – and the lack of hardware that matches the ideas in my head (or anything other than boring and benign) is frightening. Where on earth are all the left overs from manufacturers who make handbags and the like???
It’s gonna work, by golly, I’ve faced the same conundrum with simple toggle buttons. My urge is to find them on a rack but the perfect one just will never be there so being forced to cobble something together usually works out for the best. I can’t wait to see this coat!
You are making this look too easy. I know it is difficult, but doing this from the pattern instructions is extremely impressive. Great job.