| If you have System 5 Customizing, this was an additional
pack that you could purchase. (Shapes Pack 2 includes Buttonholes,
Frames2 and Music 1.) If you have Customizing Plus VIP, these can
be downloaded for free from the Viking website. If you have 3D Embroidery
Studio, they are included in the Shapes.
These are the actual opening sizes of the buttonhole needed for these
button sizes.
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There are two measurements that are very important when doing these buttonholes.
First, you must know the measurement width in MM of
the space where the buttonhole will be placed. Let’s say that we
have a blouse with a front opening and we have topstitched a line 1/4” from
the front edge and also another topstitched line 18mm from that first
line to form a placket look.
Maybe we can only fit a design 18mm wide
(3/4”) in that space. (There are
some buttonholes that will have a decoration on
top, or on the left side, or on the right side.
If you aren’t limited to space, then you
won’t have to worry about the width of the
design. Also, after adjusting the buttonhole size
and width, you may want to mirror it so the decoration
appears on the left instead of the right. You must
make sure everything is okay before mirroring because
it cannot be adjusted after that.)
Second, you must know the size
in mm of the actual opening (not including
the bartacks) that you will need for the button.
Almost all new sewing measuring tapes now have mm on them. They are marked
in tiny lines (each one is 1mm) and you will see a little larger line
every 10mm, so it is very easy to count the # of mm for the size of a
button.
So, let’s try one so you can understand how to work with these
buttonholes.
Click on “shapes” on the control panel.
Then click on the down arrow to find
“ buttonholes”. Then
click on “select” to
find the one you would like to use. The default
size of the buttonholes is 50 in customizing but
it is 30 in 3D Embroidery. The numbers in the height
and width boxes will change once we get the buttonhole
the size we want. (When practicing with several
different buttonholes, make sure you set the default
sizes in height and width back to 1.0 on the “shapes” screen
before trying another one.)
Changing the “width” size of
the buttonhole for a space 18mm wide.
We will need to see the measurements of this design in mm, so click on
the “Design” page. You will see the outline
box (which means the design is selected) with the sizing handles on the
four corners. Look at the “width” of the
design on the “control panel”.
 The butterfly buttonhole is 35.3mm wide so we would
need to use one of those hollow handles to drag it inward to reduce
it to 18mm if we needed it to fit in a placket area.
For now, just click and hold on the lower left handle and slightly pull
it towards the right. Notice the change in the width on the “control
panel”. Pull in that sizing handle until it reaches the 18mm size.
Click a few times on the “zoom in” icon to get a more accurate
sizing. 
But look at it now. I don’t think you will like this one
shrunk that much, so it really isn’t appropriate for a placket
area where you need to make it that narrow. Also once you make
the buttonhole 22mm high, it wouldn’t look good at all.
Changing the opening size of the buttonhole. (Some
of the buttonholes cannot be made smaller than
25mm.)
Turn the button over and measure across it in MM. Then be sure to add
enough for the thickness of the button. You should have a chart that
came with your sewing machines that has circles on which you lay your
button and it tells you what size opening you will need. So, let’s
say we need an opening of 22mm (7/8” button).
A trick for getting the opening the correct size is to change the grid
on the screen to the exact size you need. So, click on “preferences” and “screen” and
change the grid size to “22mm”. Now the squares are the exact
size we need for the opening.
Place your cursor “directly under the top bartack” at
the center where the slit would be. Left click and hold the cursor on
that spot and drag it to the center of the design area where the vertical
and horizontal lines meet. That is where you want the top of the buttonhole
to start. We want the bartack above that center horizontal line and the
rest of the buttonhole below it.  Now, we need to make it the correct length. Remember that we made
the square grid the exact size we wanted the buttonhole opening to
be.
So, we want the end of that buttonhole (not including the bartack)
to end exactly on that bottom line of that square. Make
sure you have the hollow handles so the stitch count will change.
Click
on “ resize” icon if they are solid.
Left click and hold on the lower right sizing handle and drag either
up or down until the bartack is just under the line and the opening is
just on the line. You will have to replace that top bartack above the
line again because you stretched out the buttonhole.Adjust the length
as necessary so the top bartack is above the top line of the square and
the bottom bartack is below the lower line of the square. 
You have changed the “width” when doing that, so carefully
redo the width again to the correct size. You may have to “zoom
in” and play with these two measurements a bit.
Once you are happy with both the width and the length, click
on “combine”. This will put the “center point” at
the top of the buttonhole opening because you placed it at the center
cross mark where all designs are centered. Click on “save
as” and name it.
When you mark your shirt for the buttonholes, make sure you make an accurate
marking for the top of the buttonhole by printing out a template
and using it as a guide.
When you want to sew out this design. you already know the top of the
opening is the “center point”. I hoop some stabilizer and
make horizontal and vertical markings on it. Then I spray it with embroidery
adhesive. I love the small round spring hoop for this. Then I attach
the hoop to the embroidery unit and find the design. I slide the garment
front under the foot and look for the exact spot where you want that
buttonhole to start. Turn the hand wheel forward slightly so the needle
penetrates that exact spot. Then make sure the front opening is very
straight on the stabilizer and then smooth the fabric onto
the sprayed stabilizer so it will stick. You may even want to baste the
design by touching “ fix and “start”.
If you had only the regular size hoop, when the design is finished, carefully
pull the stitched buttonhole from the stabilizer leaving a small hole.
You can then patch this hole with a square of stabilizer sprayed and
attached on the backside of the original stabilizer to cover the hole.
Then do the next buttonhole.
If you wanted more than one of these buttonholes on a garment, then you
need to be make careful measurements on your garment to find out how
many mm’s apart you want the opening of the buttonhole to be.
You could use your mega hoop and customizing to put more than one of
these on the screen at the same time. I would just bring up the one you
saved and then copy and paste it as many times as needed. But, do them
in order. I would change the grid on the screen to help with that. If
the measurement from the top bartack to the next bartack is 76mm apart
(3”), I would change the grid size to 38mm. This would mean that
each buttonhole bartack would be placed 2 squares apart and the top bartacks
would be placed exactly above the lines of those grids 2 squares apart.
The number of buttonholes you could fit at one time would depend on the
buttonhole you choose. Place the first one at the top, making sure that
you place each bartack just above the line of the square and then the
second one 2 squares below that and then the 3rd.
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