HI Everyone!!  I was Happy to hear from so many of you that you liked my New Video Series!!  Thanks for all the nice messages and emails.  This next video is “by request”.  Many of you have asked me for a video on how to make buttonholes, so here it is!!  I hope you find it helpful!

 

 

The first thing I’d like to mention when making machine buttonholes on any project is that your preparation is the most important part.  Let’s take for example a front buttoning shirt.  It’s imperative that you interface the front of the shirt properly with stabilizer.  This will insure that your buttonholes will look crisp and professional.

I start by marking where I want my buttonholes to start on my shirt.  I mark a straight line all the way down where the center of the buttonhole will be stitched.  I used to just mark the individual buttonholes, but found they end up more uniform if I make a continuous line.  I also only mark the start of the buttonhole, not the other end.  I let the foot determine the end of the buttonhole providing I did a “test” buttonhole to verify.

I also go one step further when making buttonholes on my garments or projects.  I borrowed this tip from something I do when I do machine embroidery.  If you think about it, a buttonhole is sort of like machine embroidery.  It’s a somewhat closely stitched zigzag meant to enclose the fabric inside the stitching to be cut open later.  As in machine embroidery, you don’t want your lovely stitches to sink down into the fibers of the fabric.  You want them to sit on top of the fabric neatly.  Well it’s the same with buttonholes.  You want your buttonhole to sit nicely and smoothly on your garment or project.  That’s why I use a water soluble, transparent stabilizer on top and bottom of the fabric as I stitch the buttonhole.

The buttonhole foot for the Singer Quantum Stylist 9960 has a special sliding section in the back of the attachment for inserting your actual button.  By doing so, you skip the step of having to calculate the size buttonhole you’ll need for your button.   I do always suggest however, that you do a “test buttonhole” to make sure.  You would hate to spend time on a making garment and sew all of your buttonholes to find out for some reason they didn’t work with your button.  This is unlikely, but could happen.  If your button has a long shank or is a very thick button, this could be the case.  Better safe than sorry!!

 
With the 9960 you have the option to increase the density of your zigzag stitches to make you buttonhole stitches more closely together.  You also have the option to adjust the width of the zigzag as well.  These are really nice features for a model at this affordable price point.
 
I hope you find Singer Quantum Stylist Part 3  in my video series helpful as well at the information detailed here on my blog, especially those of you that requested this video.  If you’ve been apprehensive in the past about trying your buttonholer, I hope this information and video make it a doable option for you to try.