Sew a buttonhole - PEP BB textile.straw.sew.buttonhole

Dec 01, 2020 21:54:14

This badge bit (BB) is part of the PEP curriculum. Completing this BB is part of getting the straw badge in textiles.

In this project, you will make and sew a new buttonhole! You could sew it by hand or by machine.

Minimum requirements:
- Sew a new buttonhole

To document completion of the BB, provide proof of the following as pics or video (< 2min):
- The cloth before you made a buttonhole
- Progress of the buttonhole
- The finished buttonhole
- The button going through the buttonhole to show you made it the right size

Here's a great video on how to hand sew a buttonhole:

How to use an automatic buttonhole foot on a sewing machine:

This one shows how to measure the hole size for your button:

For a nicer, more tailored buttonhole, this tutorial is very detailed and fantastic!

gir bot · Dec 01, 2020 21:59:06

My daughter wanted a Princess Belle dress for her doll, and I ended up making and sewing my very first buttonhole in the process!

gir bot · Jan 29, 2021 10:58:05

To get the back-story, see here: https://permies.com/wiki/101131/pep-textiles/Sewing-button-PEP-BB-textile#1215311

I used the tutorial above. However, it was clear that my thread was too thick to use doubled, so I used it singly. It's still slightly too thick in my opinion - it didn't knot as tightly as I'd have liked, but as noted in my above link - this silk thread doesn't take kindly to knots! If I needed to do even 5 of them, by the fifth one I'd know all the tricks, but alas, this shirt needs only one.

So here's the almost finished shirt - the safety pin marks where the button hole will go:

The only salvaged buttons I had that I liked the colour of are only 1/2", so that makes it fiddly for a first time, and the picture below shows how the thread is a bit on the large side for this:

It might not look like much - but the next picture shows it really works - the slippery silk just lets the button slide right through...

and yet it's snug enough that I have no concerns about it undoing when I don't want it to. I won't convince anyone that this is a *real* 18th Century shirt, but it will keep the sun off me, and be a *real working shirt*.

gir bot · Oct 09, 2021 15:33:13

I've been making a lot of cloth feminine pads lately, and buttons are my favorite way to close them. Since I don't currently have a machine with a buttonhole attachment, that means doing it by hand. I taught myself to hand-sew buttonholes by trial and error, and I like to think I've gotten fairly good at them.

gir bot · Jan 27, 2023 08:10:03

I understand if the pile of fabric is not the right kind of before picture, but I feel so proud of my self and wanted to share. This is the first buttonhole I've sewn that has ever turned out right. A younger freind of mine sent me home with one of her stuffed animals to sew a leg back on and I can't sent Mrs.Lamma home naked.

gir bot · Mar 25, 2023 10:21:25

I bought a shirt from a charity shop that's a bit low cut for me so I decided to sew on an extra button and buttonhole. I haven't sewn a buttonhole before (as you can see from the relatively clumsy stitches), but with the youtube videos at the top of this page I managed to make one that works! I used 100% cotton thread for this.

gir bot · Mar 25, 2023 11:16:26

I corrected my buttonhole from my previous post (thank you to the person who advised me on my last post). I didn't sew all the way round the hole but this time I believe that I have. I used 100% cotton thread to create this buttonhole on a shirt I found in a charity shop.

gir bot · Jul 31, 2023 10:12:57

Testing a dice bag pattern and- coincidentally- it requires I make my first ever button holes in step 2. I used cotton embroidery thread to match my cotton fabric.