Technique Tuesday: How To Sew a Buttonhole With The Sewing Machine

Today we are going to tackle the buttonhole-dun dun dun.  When I first started sewing, buttonholes were very intimidating to me.  I couldn't understand how the silly sliding buttonhole foot worked, and I made a very simple process far too complicated. So, if  you have any anxiety about creating a buttonhole with your machine's buttonhole stitch and foot, today is the day to overcome your fears.

Some of the basic supplies that you'll need are:

Thread 

Button to be attached

Buttonhole presser foot (should come with your machine)

Garment or project in need of the buttonhole

Seam Ripper

Marking pencil

Ruler

Fray check

To begin, you will want to mark the buttonhole placement on your garment or project. You will want to mark just above and below the button.  This mark will act as a placement guide when creating the buttonhole.

Technique Tuesday: Attaching Buttons With the Sewing Machine

Button, button who has the button?  Well, I have lots of buttons, and I love them!  But one thing that I don't love about buttons, is attaching them by hand.  I'm so happy that I have a sewing machine that can do most of the work for me. 

Today I'm going to show you how to attach your pretty little buttons with your sewing machine.

We'll discuss the basic button attachment, four hole attachment, small buttons, and creating buttons with a shank.  I know, thrilling right?  It might not knock your socks off, but it might just help you finish up those projects that just need to have buttons attached. Let's get started.

Refashion: Sweater to Lace Embellished Cardigan

Lace Embellished Cardigan

With the new year, I hope to introduce a few on going series to the blog. One of the new series will be  Reduce,Reuse,Refashion.  It is a series that I'm starting with the hopes of sewing my way through the piles of discarded clothing that I've been stashing for far too long.

My first project starts with a all too tight knit top that I've had for five plus years. I really like the top, but it is less than flattering on more maternal  figure. To make this little sweater into something more wearable I made a few simple changes.

1- Slit the front of the top down the center.  

2-Attached a length of contrast lace to the bottom of the sweater. (This particular top had a ribbed section near the bottom,  I aligned my lace with the top of the ribbing). I used a three point zig zag stitch along top and bottom of the lace.

3-Serged the raw edges.

4-Turned the serged edges under (1/4"). 

5-Stitched down the turned under edge.

6-Added a few decorative buttons to one side of the cardigan (not functional...the top is still too tight to actually close, but looks great belted or over a tank).

This was a really quick and easy refashion. It turned something in the back of my closet into something that I actually want to wear.

Like I mentioned earlier, I'm hoping to have this be an ongoing (but regular) series throughout the year. If any of you have projects that you'd like to share as part of the series, let me know, and I'll consider them as a guest post.

Don't forget to enter the My Memories Giveaway.