Sewing School: Buttonhole skills session

This skills session is all about buttonholes. Gill will share her hints and tips on buttonholes, including how to prepare your buttonhole before sewing, techniques for buttonhole placement, using an automatic button function and using a four-step buttonhole function. By the end of the session you will:

• Have sewn a buttonhole using an automatic buttonhole function
• Have sewn a buttonhole using a four-step buttonhole function
• Learnt techniques for preparing your buttonhole before sewing it, to avoid problems
• Sewn at least two buttonholes that are lined up

What do you need to bring?

• Your sewing machine and the instruction book
• Your buttonhole foot
• A buttonhole foot stabiliser (optional – can also be called leveller plates, compensation plates or fabric feeding plates)
• 2 x colours of thread. A contrasting one to be used in the bobbin
• Washy tape

Required sewing knowledge/experience

You need to have good basic knowledge of a sewing machine and be able to sew a straight stitch. You will need to be familiar with your machine and how to use it’s basic features such as winding and inserting the bobbin, threading up your machine and needle, changing the feet and needle and sewing a straight stitch. This session is not suitable for complete sewing machine beginners.

You also need a basic understanding of using a dressmaking pattern. This session is not suitable for absolute beginners that haven’t got experience of using a sewing machine or making clothes using dressmaking patterns.