Abstract: A safety-pin (1,22,38) of a conventional kind is provided with a sheath (2,23,39) made as a unitary moulding of plastics or like material. The sheath is slidable between a release state, in which it does not prevent the pin being opened and closed at will, and a locking state in which it does prevent the pin being opened from a closed state. To this end the sheath has barring means, comprising one or more abutments (15,30,41), which obstruct a movable limb (4) of the pin. Each abutment has an inclined face (16,31,42) which engages the end (21) of the cap (6) of the pin, while the sheath is being pushed onto the cap during a first stage of assembly, and causes the barring means to move resiliently aside from its normal position. During a later stage of assembly the barring means returns resiliently to substantially its normal position. Any attempt to pull the sheath off the cap is positively resisted by engagement between the abutment or abutments and the cap.

Abstract: A safety-pin is provided with a sheath (16;33) that fits over the cap (12;28) of the pin and can be slid between a release state and a locking state. During assembly the sheath is slid onto the cap and then at least one lug (21A,21B;38) on the sheath is bent to prevent subsequent removal of the sheath, and another deformable part (22A,22B;39)of the sheath is deformed to engage the cap sufficiently tightly as to prevent unwanted movement of the sheath. The sheaths can be slid onto the caps in either of two different ways and have redundant lugs (20A,20B;37) and deformable parts (23A,23B) so arranged that whichever way a sheath is oriented relatively to the cap, it has a lug or lugs and a deformable part suitably positioned for deformation. The sheaths are therefore fitted to the caps randomly orientated. The cap may be single-sided (28) or double-sided (12).

Abstract: A button is assembled from two components and a piece of fabric. One of those components, the support, has a head and an axial stem at the rear, while the other, the retainer, is of frusto-conical or other tapered shape, having a central hole to receive the stem. The fabric extends over the front of the support and around the edge of the head to the rear thereof. The marginal part of the fabric is trapped between the broader end of the retainer and the rear of the head. The stem has at least one undercut, and engagement means at the narrower end of the retainer snaps into the undercut or undercuts to maintain the button in the assembled state.