Sewing instructor Sandra Miller demonstrates how to prepare the right and left fronts for a button placket in this episode of The Perfect Blouse, a 15-part video series. She walks through the steps using a Cutting Line Designs pattern: The Blouse Perfected, View A.

Create the right front buttonhole placket

Make the right front buttonhole placket by marking and then folding the fabric at the foldlines. Take the time to accurately measure and stab-pin the folds before steam-pressing.

Cut a strip of interfacing 1 1/2 inches wide and the length of the front piece. Place it up against the second fold and then fold the fabric over the interfacing. Press.

Complete the buttonhole placket

Add paper-release fusible web tape on the underside of the second fold. Press it in place.

Refold the final fold and stitch 1/4 inch inside the front folded edge part of the way up from the bottom. Unfold the second fold and press the garment away from the placket. Stitch 1/4 inch from the edge, on the opposite side of the buttonhole placket.

Sandra recommends using an edgestitching foot. The foot has a blade to keep the fabric aligned f0r a straight line of stitching along the fabric edge. Press the garment front away from the stitching, then stitch 1/4 inch inside the garment edge, to complete the line of stitching on this edge.

Fold the left front placket

The left side will only be folded twice. (The fabric was folded three times to create the right front placket.) Use the same techniques for marking, folding, pinning, and pressing the folds on the left front that were applied on the right front. Also, add a strip of interfacing between the left front folds rather than next to them. Then add the fusible web tape to the second fold. Edgestitch the…