I mentioned in my blogger interview that one of my favorite features of a sewing machine to me is an automatic buttonhole feature.  It takes everything scary out of making a buttonhole.

Often, sewing machines come with an automatic buttonhole foot.  On my machine it’s pretty basic:

Start by placing the button where the buttonhole will be, and marking just below the button with a pencil or fabric marker.  This will indicate where to sew the buttonhole.

Push the back extension out as far as possible. Place your button inside, and tighten it back in .  You want to place the button you are using for your project in the buttonhole foot, not just any button because this determines the size of the buttonhole.

Take off your standard presser foot, and replace it with the buttonhole foot.  The long part of the foot should be in the back.  Select a buttonhole stitch.

Pull down the buttonhole lever.  This lever acts as a sensor and tells your machine how big to make the buttonhole.

Place the fabric underneath the buttonhole foot with the marking you made earlier directly under the needle.  Make sure the fabric is lined up straight.  Hold onto the thread, and sew.  The machine will do all the work, so you don’t need to worry about changing the stitch or pivoting.

Place straight pins through inside of each end and use a seam ripper to cut a hole inside of the buttonhole.  The straight pins help to prevent cutting through the stitching at the end.

Now all that’s left is to make sure your button fits through!  If it does, hand sew your button in place.

If your machine is different than this, just hit up your user’s manual and learn how to use YOUR buttonhole foot.

Not the buttonhole tutorial you were looking for? Try these:

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