Those Dratted Button Holes!

In my last post, I shared about the hemmer foot I used.  This week, I finally get the buttons put on my blouse, using another sewing machine attachment...the button hole foot.

I hate the final part of sewing a blouse...the hand work.  Which is odd since I love hand work.  But it's those button holes and buttons...makes me want to say bad words!

My previous machines have made me do the button hole in a 2-3 step procedure and I'll be honest...they didn't look all that great when I was done.  So after I finished sewing the blouse, It hung on the back of a chair for (dare I say it?) probably 2 weeks! 

Today I bit the bullet...or button in this case...and decided to finish it up.  I started hunting my sewing machine manual because I don't think I've done a button hole on this machine before...but I couldn't find it.

So I flipped up the panel showing all the possible stitches this Janome Professional Memory Craft 6600 can make...about 100 stitches and then the embroidery mode!  There were 5 stitches to make a button hole.

I started practicing with some, but it wasn't working for me.  Then I found a stitch that was basically hands off and within about 5 minutes I had all the button holes done.  I had so much fun, I did a video!


After getting such perfect button holes, I worked on the buttons.

My mother taught me this little trick of getting buttons to match up perfectly with the button holes (which is a problem I've had before, getting the blouse to lay smoothly and evenly after putting on the buttons).

First use some really sharp scissors to cut a pretty slice through your button hole, without cutting the thread (just ignore that little tuck in the collar you see in the picture, it's on the underside so no one will see that!).

 Then match up both sides of the front of your blouse, wrong side to wrong side, getting the edges even and the tops and the bottom of the blouse even.  Pin through from the left side to the right side, straight through the center of the button hole.  Where your pin is on the left side will be the center of where your button will go.

 Then I secure my pin and bringing my double threaded needle through from the right side to the left side, I come out right where the pin marked the center of the button hole.  See how I'm actually taking my first stitch through the slice of the button hole?

 

 At this point, I'm only working with the left side of the blouse (where the buttons are) and I sew my buttons on.

 By the time I was half way through my first episode of a McMillian & Wife marathon, I had the blouse finished.  I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out because it has fitted side panels, but I think it looks just fine!

The Hemmer Foot

My sewing machine, a Janoine professional quilter, came with a box full of attachments.  There are all these shiny sewing feet and finally last night, I decided to try one of them out.

The Hemmer Foot

I was wanting to put a small rolled hem on a sleeve for a blouse I am making.  Rolling it myself was making the hem too large, so I pulled out the hemmer foot.

 

The width of the hem is based on the back of the foot, that little grove, which I believe is a 1/8 inch.

 

So...here's how it works.

First you have to start a little roll and them manipulate the fabric into that twisted curvy thing on the top of the foot.  The fabric needs to "touch" both sides of the inside of the foot (see picture below).  Pulling the fabric across that opening allows for the fabric to be pulled into that curvy thing and then the magic starts to work.

 

 Then out the back of the foot comes this perfect tiny little hem.

I did find that if I put too much fabric into the foot that it did a twisted hem or if I had some fringe on the fabric, it showed in the hem (see photo above).  But overall....I loved this foot and will definitely be using it more often.

My favorite foot is still the 1/4 inch for piecing and the standard foot for general sewing.

So what is your favorite sewing foot?