Patricia Bowden (asker) Jan 11, 2015:

@Port city. You hit the nail on the head. The fabrics with 根巻き are thick and the ones without are thin. The illustrations within the document show that the buttons with 根巻き are flat buttons and it provides instructions on how to make the 根巻き. The source does also mention buttons that come with a shank, but those are referred to as 足付き釦 (shank button). The source text does not explicitly say if the shanks are required for buttoning but I do get that impression.
I spoke with an old friend today who happens to be proficient in sewing. She simply calls it a "thread shank."
Once I had that term I was able to find a definition on wikepedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shank_(sewing)

I was also able to find it used in context here:
https://books.google.it/books?id=0xG8XcpSsM4C&pg=PA141&lpg=P...

I think this might be the correct term for when 根巻き is mentioned in the list, though I would love to hear other opinions as well.

Marc Brunet Jan 11, 2015:

Interesting contextual distinction, Port City-san, Thank you for that one.If so, the rendering of the word string supplied should not translate the same way (different syntax):
a) for button with shank: would go for "Thread wound shank[ed button]"
b) for button without shank: (as already suggested) "wound thread shank".
But other opinions welcome.
PS: reflecting back on the Japanese preference for "wind thread" rather than "wound thread" as an NP, wondering whether this might be traceable to Japanese translators's concern to eliminate a possible myopic mix-up (or even subliminal connotation) of "wound" with 傷, in this case..?

Port City Jan 11, 2015:

As for 根巻き used in the list, if the fabrics with 根巻き are thick and the ones without are thin, it should mean "shanks" (both shanks of shank buttons and thread shanks). Maybe it's telling if shanks are required for buttoning. If this assumption seems irrelevant, can you show us the source text?

Patricia Bowden (asker) Jan 10, 2015:

I want to thank everyone for their entries so far. This has been incredibly enlightening!
@Port City, I think "wind the thread to make a shank" will be the best fit for the sentence above. I also like @mmb42's "wound thread shank."

Marc Brunet Jan 10, 2015:

@Kayoko-san, I do appreciate your reminder, but you do realise, don't you, that the sites you refer to are Japanese ones using the brand of English that is current in the relevant industry in Japan. Mind you, some of these Japanese-coined terms are perhaps eventually adopted by the US and UK business associates of Japanese businesses. This simplifies all communication problems, since grammar or exact semantic is not the main focus. The same happens in many other fields, like IT for instance. I too have capitulated to the Japanese preference for 'Time-out' timers used in their 'interrupt event' sequences specs, to signify the termination of a given time duration, even though, originally, "Time-Out" is used to refer to the suspension of a time count down,(in the course of a sporting event, mostly.) Anyway, language is alive and evolves functionally in response to a felt need. In this sense, even expediency is acceptable, in many cases. So, if the frequency statistics are well on the side of "wind thread shank', with no sign of reconsideration, no point resisting against it! let's join the Beetles and sing.. "Let it be!... Let it be!" :-)

Marc Brunet Jan 10, 2015:

@Port City-san, Spot on! makes perfect sense seen that way. as per :
https://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&s...

Port City Jan 9, 2015:

Red Bridge's suggestion may be right, but it also sounds like the button comes with a shank. Since it's about sewing a flat button, I think the expression more often used is "wind the thread to make a shank".