submitted by Frances Sears
From Threads #96

You don’t need fancy equipment to sew buttons on by machine—just a simple zigzag stitch—and if you’re sewing lots of buttons of the same size to a garment, you’ll complete the job in half the time. First, drop, disengage, or cover your machine’s feed dogs, or set the stitch length to 0, then carefully adjust the zigzag width to the distance between the button’s holes. Lower the presser foot onto the button and fabric (I use temporary stabilizer underneath the fabric), and let the machine stitch back and forth through the button’s holes several times. Remove the fabric from the machine and tie the thread ends.