Burda Style For people who sew

Use your sewing machine to make buttonholes!

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17 Comments Sign in to add a post

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  Feb 28, 2011, 11.19 AMby njcraftstyle

  A great dress-saving tutorial. Just like you said, I couldn’t believe how easy it was. Now buttonhole victory is mine too :) Thank you! The instructions are clear as cristal and the result is perfect.
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  Nov 1, 2010, 02.07 AMby fifilina

  That’s very funny, I was scared of the automatic buttonhole for ages too then realised how easy it was when my friend borrowed my machine for costume making.

  Although, as others have mentioned, I often jam the fabric as well. And I had to sew about 40 buttonholes in a curtain a few weeks ago and I kept accidentally touching the sensor thing so it would skip to the next part of the buttonhole. They can be a little temperamental but I think once you figure it out, perfect buttonholes!!
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  Oct 31, 2010, 02.50 PMby tamalicious16

  Your tutorial confirms that I’m doing this properly, but I often run into problems anyway, especially on thick fabrics. Partway through the buttonhole, my machine will stop feeding the fabric at the right rate, so it will end up making one side longer than the other or just jam entirely. It jammed so bad one time that it screwed up the timing of my machine, and I had to take it in for repair. Is this just a shortcoming of my machine, or is there some trick?

  1 Reply

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    Nov 2, 2010, 04.41 PMby rachelnyc

    Hi tamalicious16,

    Wow, you’re poor machine :(
    Thick fabrics are sometimes super challenging and if the machine isn’t sturdy enough, you run into problems like these. Sorry, I don’t know of any “tricks.”

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  Sep 11, 2009, 02.35 PMby sammy09

  thank you SO much! ive just sorta started using my machine and i was having such trouble figuring out how to use the button hole device…didnt realise there was a button hole foot (whoops)

  thanks again :D this is such a good tutorial
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  Jul 19, 2009, 11.10 AMby dreamz

  Thanks for this. I was having problems getting my automatic button hole to work… I was not bringing down the button stopper thingy, step 7, which wasn’t clear in the manual and I didn’t even know was there. Bonus for me is that I have the same machine as you, but step by step pictures beat my manual anyday. Thanks
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  Jul 15, 2009, 02.18 PMby firedancer13

  This was a true lifesaver! I have been avoiding buttonholes for sometime now since they are one good way to ruin a beutiful garment that you have spent many hours on. My machine has automatic buttonhole setting, but it in very frustrating. It thinks that it is smarter than me, and nothing is harder than ripping out the tiny stitches of a buttonhole gone bad!

  I used this technique to finish all of the projects I had, and it was great! THANK YOU!!
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  Jul 10, 2009, 06.31 AMby engelkc

  thanks. i was so afraid about using that feature.
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  Mar 9, 2009, 06.12 PMby sewlikealice

  Thank you! I was wondering what that thing was, a button foot! I wish I’d read this before I finished my last project, my button holes are terrible…. now I know…
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  Dec 7, 2008, 01.55 PMby sheilagh

  I had given up on ever making a buttonhole automatically. The instruction book for my cheap Singer is so bad there is no way to follow the process from reading it.

  As soon as I read your post, I went and made a perfect buttonhole. Thanks!
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  Nov 21, 2008, 07.54 AMby kdeich

  I feel like a silly bean. I had lost my sensor foot for the button holes and have not put any buttons on anything that I have made in the past 2 years because I didn’t know how to do it manually on my machine. Thanks for this how to. :)
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  Aug 17, 2008, 12.27 PMby komtvedt

  This is very helpful, but I’m either getting something wrong or there’s something wrong with my machine. I can’t get the shape of the buttonhole right. Is the machine supposed to stitch the shape of the buttonhole or do I have to move the fabric manually in the shape of the buttonhole? Sorry- it may be easy, but I’m missing something. Thanks in advance.

  1 Reply

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    Nov 1, 2010, 02.11 AMby fifilina

    I think the machine is supposed to do it but I find if you don’t feed the fabric at all, that’s when it tends to jam. But, as I said in my post above, when I tried to feed it I kept touching the sensor accidentally. Sigh. So i’m not entirely sure. I think just practice heaps of buttonholes until you figure out what works best for you rmachine.

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  Mar 24, 2008, 08.09 AMby jennlen14

  Thanks so much! I just finished my first buttonhole— I’m so proud! My machine is a tad different, but you definately helped me figure it out :-D
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  Feb 25, 2008, 09.15 AMby fenchurch

  Thank you so much for this – I’ve just got my first machine and the manual was less than helpful, but I have just created a perfect buttonhole after reading this. Thanks for taking the time to write it out :)
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  Jan 19, 2008, 06.59 PMby rosyapple

  wow this is very helpful! everything very clearly explained. my machine only does one stitch (straight) but now i have more of an idea how to do it by hand, thankyou.
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  Oct 19, 2007, 04.41 AMby marmota-b

  …and thank you also for writing what the size of the buttonholes should be!
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  Oct 19, 2007, 04.39 AMby marmota-b

  Thanks for posting how to sew buttonholes on the simplest machines. :-) I’m afraid ours is like that… and it should be very helpful for me now. Normally I tend to avoid buttons, but in some garments you just can’t…
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  Jul 6, 2007, 10.32 AMby pranamama

  This is very helpful! My mother made some things for the babies in our family and brought them over to my house so I could put in all the buttnholes! I have an electronic sensor buttonhole foot on my machine, but it is important to know how to use the automatic buttonhole foot and the manual buttonhole process as well. Thanks for this.