How to Sew A Buttonhole (Video!)

Learn how to sew a one-step buttonhole with the help of your sewing machine and your friends at Prudent Baby. Do not be intimidated. It’s so much easier than you think. Watch and tell us if you agree.

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20 Comments

Yana

very useful video, thanks! (Jamie, you are looking great!)) but what if I have this special foot but I don’t have such cool mode on my sewing machine? buttonhole is scares me 🙁

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Rachel

You’re right, this does look easy! Thank you for the video! Now I just have to figure out how to sew a button on with my machine. I hate hand sewing!

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Jenny

Thank you for the video! It’s always better to see once than hear ten times 🙂
One question though: why do you need to mark the place for buttonhole with the pen if the machine does it automatically?

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Jaime

thanks! it’s good to mark it just to know you are putting it in the right place on your final item (your shirt or what not). don’t want any surprises.

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Sydney

I just taught myself how to do this! I was absolutely ****ing myself while I did it! I was so scared I was going to mess up and ruin my niece’s birthday present! I was surprised at how easy it really is though. Nice job on demystifying the process!

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Lynnora

Thank you so much for this video, great advice! I was really petrified of making a buttonhole and I actually kept attaching ribbons to tie together on my projects cause the buttonhole-foot scared me.
Now I think I will try to make it work tomorrow. Thank you!

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Kelly

I am SO excited about all of your turorials. I just got my sewing machine last week (I’m a beginner… you’ve inspired me!) and I have already done a hooded towel for my big baby and after this tutorial I think I may just do my own shower curtain instead of hiring someone to make it for me! Going to go do a sample buttonhole now!

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Kelly

Alright… on to the shower curtain. I have the whole thing done except the buttonholes. I have been practicing buttonholes all morning, but I am having trouble. My practice holes on my folded thin cotton fabric is coming out fine, but when I practice on scraps of my actual fabric, my top thread keeps breaking. The fabric I am using is 55% linen & 45% rayon. (It’s the beautiful Robert Allen Khanjali Glacier… I planned a whole bathroom around it!) I am using Premium Sulky 40 wt. rayon thread. I’ve tried the buttonholes using 3, 4, & 5 tension. I don’t know what to do! Any ideas?!

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Kelly

Nevermind! I did it! I cleaned my machine, completely re-threaded it, and used a new needle. (After hours of researching what to do…) Voila! A shower curtain! Now I can go to bed… 😉

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Sharon

Once I got past staring at your way-fun nail polish and paid attention, I was surprised at how easy peasy this is going to be. I don’t have a fancy electronic machine, but I’m sure now that I can work things out. Didn’t realize today was gonna be a day that changed my sewing forever, but apparently it is! Thanks! (and your lipstick looks perfect with the polish:)

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Holly B

I was trying to understand the buttonhole directions that came with my sewing machine, but I had NO IDEA what the book was instructing me to do! I pinned this link several months ago and revisited it. Your tutorial was extremely helpful! I actually sewed a practice buttonhole. Then, when I tried to do it for real, it was a miserable failure. I will keep trying, though.

BTW, there are sirens in the background of your video. My husband went quickly to the window to see what was going on outside. I tried to explain it was the video, but he was convinced it was outside. For the next minute or so, I continuously kept rewinding to prove the sirens were not at our place. Thanks for the tutorial and the entertainment!

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Holly B

I tried to follow the directions for making a buttonhole found in the instruction manual that came with my sewing machine, but I was so confused! I found your tutorial through pinteret. I made a perfect practice buttonhole! However, I tried it on my real fabric and it was utter failure! I will keep trying, though.

On a side note, there are sirens at the end of your video as background noise. My husband thought they were at our house and moved quickly to the windows. I had to rewind a few time to prove it was the video, not outside our home.

Thanks for the tutorial and the entertainment!!!

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Micki

I’m now not sure where you’re getting your information, but
great topic. I needs to spend some time learning much more or understanding more.

Thanks for wonderful information I used to be looking for this info for my mission.

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Roger

The pin as a ripping stopper is a good tip. I’m less sold on auto buttonholes though. The inner box tends to be too wide and when ripped (and trimmed) it leaves a lot of ugly fibres, or, if trimmed down, a too-wide hole.

The other issue is the quality of the satin stitching; they never seem to look anything like close enough. The old Pfaff 90 – a consumer machine – had a buttonhole foot that was more manual, but gave better, more professional results. It also allowed you to feed a gimp cord into the foot while sewing.

I know many people are terrified of even easy buttonhole-making, so I’m not dismissing the method in the video, but I think maybe the auto method stops people learning how to use a machine to sew buttonholes, rather having the machine do all the work.

btw, in a keyhole buttonhole the ‘eye’ is for the button shank to rest (against purls on hand-worked buttonholes). In machined versions it’s mostly decorative.

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Abbey

You rock! I broke my mother inlaw’s machine like seventeen times a few months ago when I was trying to sew one without that handy tool. 🙂

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