Tips & Techniques

Bound Buttonholes

Notice that when you choose this buttonhole, the display screen shows to use the A foot. With the bound buttonhole, we have to manually use the reverse button to get the desired length.

I think the default setting is too narrow, so I change the SW to 7.0. This wider width is only available on the Designer SE.

I measure the button and then take into account the thickness of the button to draw a line that represents the actual length of the buttonhole you wish to make.

I make sure the line is centered with the red dot at the center of the A foot and of course the stitching goes backwards. I align the red marks on the side if the foot with the lower end of the line.

I hang onto the top thread and keep it to the left when it starts sewing because I want to use that thread as a little extra help to know where the beginning stitch is.

I let it sew backward and always watch to make sure the center red dot on the foot is aligned perfectly on the drawn line.

I go slowly when getting to the end of the line and as soon as I see the red lines on the side of the foot are aligned with the top end of the drawn line, I touch the reverse.

I sew toward the bottom of the line always making sure I keep that red dot on the foot on the drawn line.

When the red lines on the side of the foot are aligned perfectly with the beginning of the line, then I touch the reverse again to finish the stitching.

Then touch the "stop" button on the machine to save this buttonhole in a special memory so that all the next buttonholes will be the same size. Just start at the lower left and sew and the machine does the rest.

I measure ¼” from both stitched ends and make a dot on the drawn line. I cut the center line very straight up to the spot I marked and then I cut at an angle to the corners. Be careful not to cut the stitches.

Then I press the little seams including the triangle of the top fabric only away from the buttonhole.

I push the top fabric through the hole and on the backside, I form a tiny pleat on each side that will form the buttonhole and I press those pleats down making sure after looking on the front side that both side look even.

This is how the front will look.

Then turn the fabric over and fold the main fabric away from the triangle so you can stitch the triangle on to those pleats on top of the previous stitching line on the triangle. I choose stitch A2 and reduce the stitch to 1.5. Stitch both ends this way.

Turn the fabric over and press again. Then stitch in the ditch with matching color thread.

Finished buttonhole looks something like this.