Burda Style For people who sew

I am practising bound buttonholes on the ‘muslin’ of my 1930s dress pattern (which calls for bound buttonholes through the facing of the bodice) but can’t work out what I’m supposed to do with the raw edges of the binding patches.

The pattern says “Make a pleat at edges of opening, forming a binding outside with edges meeting; baste. Fasten pleat. Sew strip invisibly to buttonhole stitching” (not quite sure how you do that last bit as the stitching around the 4 edges of the buttonhole is now on the inside of the binding, but it implies that you just leave the edges of the binding patch raw). Then apparently you slash a matching rectangle in the underpart of the facing and slip-stitch this down to the unfinished side of the buttonhole, sandwiching the binding patch betwen the two thicknesses of material. But what protects the raw corners of this hole in the facing (where the edges of the diagonal corner cuts are?)

My sewing manual (circa 1934) says that bound buttonholes are a “quick and easy” way to finish off buttonholes in fraying dress materials, and suggests bringing the binding through both thicknesses of the facing and hemming down the raw edges while at each end “arrang[ing] the corners neatly in a tiny pleat”, which seems to make more sense but is very fiddly to do neatly, especially with fraying fabric. However it doesn’t agree with any of the tutorials I’ve seen online, none of which are particularly explicit on this point, including the BurdaStyle one

I’m using lining material for my test efforts, which may be exacerbating the problem of fraying edges….

Sep 14, 2011, 12.29 PM by harrietbazley

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  Sep 14, 2011, 08.44 PMby katexxxxxx

  This is an OK tutorial: http://stitchinmysideregan.blogspot.com/2009/12/bound-buttonhole-tutorial.html

  Or try this one: http://www.withamoderntwist.com/2011/03/how-to-all-in-one-window-pane-method.html

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    Sep 20, 2011, 01.14 AMby harrietbazley

    Thanks; consensus definitely seems to be that you leave the edges raw inside the facing.

    I tried pulling the binding patch through both layers of fabric and folding in the ends as described above and it produces a very sturdy finish which looks identical on the ‘right’ side but is rather bulkier on the back – main advantage is that the ‘lips’ of the buttonhole are twice as robust since both layers of fabric are enclosed.

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  Sep 20, 2011, 11.56 AMby katensew

  Yes I use that method too and for bound pockets – you can " bind " one edge and the other edge can be pressed back — also a flap can be added ! Useful for smaller pockets say on a waistcoat.

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    Sep 23, 2011, 09.48 PMby harrietbazley

    Just come across this recently-posted tutorial http://buzzybeesworld.blogspot.com/2011/09/bound-buttonholes-some-refinements.html which is a nice one – and answers the specific problem that was puzzling me, to wit the finishing of the corners on the inside of the buttonhole.

    Using a second, invisible lightweight binding patch to protect the edges on the other layer of fabric makes a lot of sense – and is a lot more ‘period’ for my project than the fusible interfacing most Internet guides seem to fall back on! (And as I’m currently doing the whole garment by hand anyway, the prospect of"a small amount of hand sewing" really isn’t going to frighten me off… stitching those buttonhole edges absolutely straight is more of a challenge…)