Hand Worked Buttonholes

Hand Worked Buttonholes

The following are the steps to work buttonholes by hand.

1.     Work a basting stitch through the buttonhole marking near the center-front line. Decide on the length of buttonhole and put in a marking basting parallel to the first. Mark placement of buttonholes with a cross basting.

2.     Machine stitch around the rectangle. Count the stitches, so that the rectangles will be equal in length and width, double stitch for a few stitches so that no knot will be needed. Remove bastings. Cut down the center of each rectangle, cutting exactly along a thread of the fabric.

3.     Work buttonhole stitches from right to left. Put the needle through the slashed opening with the point of the needle coming through the fabric just beyond the machine stitches. Bring both the threads around the point of the needle and complete the stitch, keeping the loops of thread along the cut edge of the slash. Repeat the stitch and be sure the stitches are close together, revealing no fabric between them. They must also be of an equal depth.

  Worked buttonholes have a fan shape at the end nearest to the center front, where there will be strain due to the pull on the button. The other end is called the bar end. Make several long stitches at the end to form the bar.