An aspect of clothing that we often take for granted, the humble buttonhole. Buttonholes were invented in the Middle Ages, it’s hard to imagine a time before such simple closures existed, but in the 13th century people were lacing themselves into their clothes. Thank goodness for buttons.
A beautifully finished buttonhole can elevate your sewing from that ‘home sewing’ look, to a one of a kind heirloom garment. This is a piece of precision stitching, so practise a few times on a swatch of the actual fabric you are sewing in before attempting is on your precious garment.
But being able to do this opens up many other possibilities and advances your general sewing ability.
It’s well worth investing the time, mastering this skill can take your sewing to a new level.
Good tools help immensely with fiddly little projects like this, marking and measuring accurately is going to save you time and tears. Here are a few of our favourite professional tools worth investing in for a lifetime of crisp corners and perfect stitches. These are not just useful for buttonholes, but will easily become your go to tools for any precise pattern work and sewing magic.
- Stormshopping 6 Stlye Plastic Fashion Metric Ruler Set
- This set includes six, clear flexible rulers, perfect for grading and pattern making.
- Madam Sew Heat Erasable Fabric Marking Pens.
- Extra-fine 0.7mm writing points. These sewing fabric markers let you draw out clear, intricate patterns.
- Inks vanish easily with just a hot iron.
- Includes 1 refill of each ink color.
- Black Button Measurer mm ligne gauge
- Ligne (from the French for line) is the traditional unit for measuring buttons.
- Accurately marked in cm and Linge
- 5-in-1 Sliding Gauge Measuring Sewing Ruler Tool.
- Can be used as t-guage, hem guage, seam allowance, buttonhole spacer and circle compass
- Steamfast SF-680 Digital Steam Press with Multiple Fabric Settings and Steam Burst
- For a professional finish, this luxury press helps you get that perfect, crisp detail.
Sew You! Magazine 