Burda Style For people who sew

This is a technique I've done on a few different garments and even though I haven't yet perfected their art, I've still found them to be extraordinarily beautiful. I've picked up tips and tricks here and there from various sources on the best way to do these for the home seamstress, so my info is a mish mash of this and that. And much of it is based on what is available to us nowdays. For instance, finding true buttonhole gimp....I've looked high and low and have never been able to find any, so I've listed my best substitute.

Technique Materials

You will need the following: ♥ buttonhole twist (you can buy beautiful silk threads here or another option is to use the pearlized cotton found by the embroidery threads, you can also use wool thread which is great for a "hairy" effect or even on sweaters!) Tip: buttonhole twist is different from other threads. You need a fat, tightly woven thread, so sadly regular thread and embroidery floss do not work. (believe me, I've tried, you'll cry because I did) ♥ buttonhole gimp (I use a strand of the buttonhole twist or for a sturdier option use button and craft thread) ♥ beeswax ♥ fray check ♥ small shears or a seam ripper for cutting buttonholes

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3 Comments

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  Apr 3, 2011, 08.29 PMby almatinka

  Thank you for the tutorial – it sounds great and I will definitely try this, but I also wanted you to know that it’s a pleasure to read it due to the beautiful pictures!!! :-)
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  Apr 1, 2011, 08.22 PMby ariellrose

  I wish I had seen this a few weeks ago! My grandmother’s Singer, on which I sewed for many years, had an amazingly precise buttonhole attachment, but my current machine’s three step built-in buttonholes are not so great, so I recently decided to try hand-bound buttonholes—your tutorial is one of the best I’ve seen. It’s interesting that your method “purls” on the buttonhole edge—it seems like it would give the buttonhole more strength and stability than the other method I’ve seen (where the knotted part of the buttonhole stitch lies on your machine stitched rectangle), but have you used it with buttons without shanks? Seems like it might be bulky?
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  Mar 27, 2011, 10.17 AMby nialew

  Great Tuturial, thanks that helped alot