How to make a standard shirt cuff link ready

How to Make a Standard Shirt Cuff Link Ready

My oldest son is kind of a fan of dressing up. He is a member of his High School FBLA team and recently went to the state competition {where you have to dress in full suit} and begged me to put cufflink holes in his standard shirt so that he could sport his cufflinks that he got for Christmas. Apparently, shirts with cufflink holes are far more expensive then your run of the mill standard dress shirt. Who knew? And more expensive is just not my MO, so alas, I knew there was a way to do it on my own and save money. Here's how I did it!

How to start with making your standard shirt cuff link ready

I started with my son's standard dress shirt.

You know it's a standard dress shirt because of these two buttons on the cuff.

You want to remove the buttons.

Now fold back your cuff and you will have four layers.

Your cufflink will go through all four layers of your shirt, however, as it is now, there is only one button hole.

Sew on a buttonhole

I used the button that I removed and put on my button hole foot on my sewing machine. This feature on my Janome sewing machine is amazing!

I don't remember button holes being so easy! If you don't make button holes often, you may want to practice on a scrap piece of fabric.

Mark through your button hole where you will need to make your new button hole.

You will need to make this mark on all three layers that you will be creating a new cuff link hole.

This is a picture of four button holes

{see the two below the cuff}

Use an xacto knife and cut open your button hole.

Fold back your cuff and insert your cufflink through all four layers.

That's it!

It took me about 5 minutes to do on each side.

This little trick will save you a ton of money and will give you a very high end look. 

How to Put on Cufflinks?

Welp, that's an age old question!  
With your shirt on, pinch the cuffs of the sleeve together. Insert the cufflink through both holes in the shirt's cuff. 
The decorative part faces the outside.
On the backside of the cuff, flip the bar to hold your cuff link in place.
Aren't you going to look nice?!