Substitute for Buttons?

[NABoylan]

Hi All-

My brother-in-law was in an accident some time back, and as a result lost a lot of dexterity in his fingers to do buttons and snaps. He has gotten around this by buying shirts that are way too big, having someone button them once after laundry, and then putting them on like t-shirts. He's swimming out of his shirts with this method, however, and I'm trying to find a way to get him into clothes that actually fit him that he can wear.

Best idea I can come up with is getting some zipper shirts made with a covered placket to cover the zipper. It'll look a little "Christian Bale in Equilibrium" but I can't think of any other ideas for him. I know they make little button helper pulls, but he has a hard time with those too.

Any other ideas?

 

[maxalex]

Senator Bob Dole, who lost the use of one arm in Italy during WWII, had his shirts outfitted with Velcro closures under dummy buttons. This would not be hard to retrofit on RTW shirts. First cut off the buttons. Then sew strips of Velcro inside the plackets. (Easier on shirts with French style plackets where the fold is open.) Then sew the buttons onto the left placket, over the holes, to make "dummy" buttons.

Given his physical limitations your bro-in-law probably couldn't do the sewing himself, but any tailor could.

 

[baystreetwarrior]

have you thought about getting him some popovers?

 

[Vinilo1969]

have you thought about getting him some popovers?

Creative option that.