There have been several discussions on buttonholes, vertical, horizontal, buttonhole machines etc, but I didn’t find any answers to the the question I am about to pose.
Most of my lined Dannimac (sort of a raincoat that doesn’t look like one) buttonholes had torn their way further out of the buttonholes.
I decided to sandwich hymo in fusible interfacing with the interfacing glue facing outside and inserting this in between the outer and the inner fabrics.
I then ironed this so as to close all holes permanently and then proceeded to make buttoholes again.
It all looked fine till I cut the holes – the hymo fibres and interfacing show through. I feel I could have avoided that by higher stitch density but there may be some other ways of doing this. Any suggestions?
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Can you "color" the strays with a matvhing magic marker pen?
A thinned-down acrylic craft paint or fabric paint will also do the trick.
Beo and Teaf5: what an ingenous solution! I don't have the problem, but what an elegant idea!
"the hymo fibres and interfacing show through. I feel I could have avoided that by higher stitch density"It would be a lot of work but how about hand stitching over the original stitches with wooly nylon? Examples:Frayed buttonhole repairhttp://www.ehow.com/how_113483_fix-frayed-buttonhole.htmlhttp://www.essortment.com/hobbies/buttonbuttonhol_sxrt.htm
Interesting articles; thank you. Whilst I still can't use my hand for work with finer co-ordination, it's an interesting idea to run the machine over with the zigzag stitiches over the old ones. I learnt something new in one of these articles:
Slip pins into the material at both ends of the buttonhole so that the scissors will be prevented from cutting into the stitching. This is good insurance in case you put too much pressure on the scissors.
I can't use scissors to cut buttonholes, but I do use scalpel blades, and the idea would still apply.
Whilst you lot have been searching for ideas to help me, I looked in the Threads magazine index and found an article on buttonholes in #98. Like the dHow article, it advises you to run another lot of zigzag stitches after cutting the hole on completing the buttonhole procedure.
If you closed up the buttonholes successfully why not leave them closed permanently, sew a button over each one and sew in snap fasteners or other closure suitable to your Dannimac material. I find acrylic knitwear cardigan buttonholes stretch badly and find this remedy very good and as it gets rid of the rather sad look caused by the baggy holes.
That is a good idea for future use. To be honest, I wanted to experiment with the new grandly named 'sensormatic buttonhole maker' in my new Pfaff - it was fun. I clipped the fraying fabric because there wasn't enough time to do any more constructive work on it.
The truth is that it had been on the hanger for a few years and a Salvation Army bag was posted through my door for clothes. I wanted to do my best to make it as wearable as I would have liked. I am now too big for it - old story (excuse the pun)
On the subject of buttonholes, the following blog URL has a recent entry about them. I kinda agree with the thought of older being the better in some instances. My straight stitch Kenmore, bought in 1958, uses a buttonhole attachment similar to the one shown on the blog. My cams are metal & if memory serves the unit was made by Geist. I have a duster I still wear made on the machine and the buttonholes have stood the test of time. I've always been succesful making others using this machine & attachment on a variety of fabrics.
http://www.coudremode.com
nepa
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