I spent a long time avoiding sewing button holes. For some reason I’d built them up in my head to be really scary. I have since discovered they are easy as pie. I was required to sample some of the buttonhole stitches from my sewing machine for my college portfolio. So thought I’d share some photos for anyone else who may be a bit of a scaredy cat like I was….
Here’s my buttonhole machine foot….probably much like yours..
Slide open the bit on the left….
Pop the button in…
Slide it closed again…
Remove usual presser foot….(no time to paint my nails, sorry!)
Attach buttonhole foot like so….
Pull down buttonhole guide so it sits behind the first buttonhole spacer on the foot…
Hold top thread tail out to side, and sew…just hold the foot pedal down and the machine will do the rest and will stop automatically when the buttonhole is complete….
These are samples of the buttonholes on my machine. Using the one on the right as the example,stick a pin through JUST below the group of stitches at the top of the buttonhole. This is to protect these stitches from being cut when you cut the buttonhole open in the next step…(just ignore the bottom pin in the picture)
Inserting a seam ripper in the base of the button hole, gently and carefully cut the button hole open up to the pin you inserted in the top…
And there you have it. Snip the scruffy bits and finish the thread ends, and you have a functional basic buttonhole…
I hope to try my hand at some variations and hand sewn styles too at some point soon, so I’ll be sure to record my efforts stage by stage on here….
Px