How to Make a Buttonhole on a Baby Lock, Bernina, Brother, Janome, Pfaff or Viking & a bartack buttonhole
Natalie, Sarah, San, Georgia, Kris & Gabrielle created buttonhole tutorials for you, specific to their sewing machine brand’s quirks and procedures. This continues our exploration of buttonholes & buttonhole tips for Sewing Machine Month. We realize there is often even more variation between sewing machine models by the same manufacturer, but we hope this gives you a good starting place for confidence/info in conjunction with the owner’s manual for your machine. If your machine is missing from the list, you could always do a how-to on your blog and add the URL below (Singer, anyone?!). Please feel free to add your experiences, expertise, advice and/or thoughts in the comments. Find introductions for today’s contributors here (lots of fun blogs to explore!), and enjoy their buttonhole tutorials too:
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Baby Lock Buttonhole by Natalie from Vegetablog
Bartack Buttonhole by San from The4Rs Bernina Buttonhole by Sally from Sew Sally Brother Buttonhole by Georgia from Puking Pastilles Janome Buttonhole by Sarah from indywriter Pfaff Buttonhole by Gabrielle at Bee Wise Bags Viking Buttonhole by Kris from Summer at Grandma’s House |
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70 Responses to “How to Make a Buttonhole on a Baby Lock, Bernina, Brother, Janome, Pfaff or Viking & a bartack buttonhole”
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Great Post .. I love this months topic.
I always avoid buttons because I was scared of making the button holes. Thanks for clearing up the questions I had on making them with my brother sewing machine.
This is so great! I’m bookmarking this so I can come back to it when I upgrade my machine… Seriously leaning toward a Babylock.
Since I own a Singer, I would LOVE to see a tutorial specific to my kind.
GREAT tutorials! I finally dragged out my machine’s manual a few years ago and soon realized I had been scared of buttonholes for no reason. I hope these lessons will banish buttonhole fear across the blogosphere.
One suggestion (and someone may have said this but I didn’t see it) – always make a test buttonhole not just to test machine tension, stitch length, etc., but to test the overall sewn length of your buttonhole prior to laying them out on your garment. I make a lot of baby and toddler clothes and this can make a big difference!
Would love to see a Singer tutorial added to the list!
wow! great info, thanks ladies!
Thank You! I am fairly new to sewing and have been avoiding everything requiring a button hole. This makes it look so easy.
These are all great but I still don’t think the hand made buttonhole should be counted out. I can use pretty floss, I can do it while sitting on my couch, and unlike my machine I never loose my mind and eat the nearly finished product I’m working on.
I hope my Singer isn’t too difficult to figure out!
wow.. I am the first to comment!
I just bought a Brother sewing machine, and the tutorial really helps!!
Now I think I can also make a button hole
Thank you for sharing!
A great resource! Thank you!
Thanks for such a great post. It’s fun learn from tutorials.
Oh I am sooo excited about this! The buttonhole has been my boogey man of sewing and I can’t wait to try out Georgina’s tutorial for Brother machines! Thank you for this!
I always forget how to do buttonholes on my Kenmore and I always have to do a bunch of practices on a scrap. Buttonholes. Zippers. I heartily dislike closures.
Thanks! Nice to have a tutorial just for my Brother machine
It’s so great to see how buttonholes are done on different machines! Although, I must admit it makes me a little jealous of all of those automatic buttonhole settings
Thanks ladies!
Anyone know Kenmore? I found a pic of my buttonhole foot: http://twitpic.com/8hwcf
Great tutes! I think you have all the machines covered!
Wow, I didn’t know how to do any of that! That seems easier than zippers so maybe I’ll finally give it a shot. Thanks for the great tutorial.
I have a Husqvarna Viking Sapphire 870, and their interactive guide is great. The automatic buttonhole is wonderful, and just one of the features I love about this machine!
http://www.husqvarnaviking.com/us/8681_8690.htm# (link to the guide, where you can see how the automatic buttonhole works).
Thank you for this! I am planning a button-up shirt for myself and am encouraged by the demonstration of my particular brand (Brother). Now I have no reason not to try!
Awesome list! Thank you!
I have yet to brave the use of my botton-hole function but you make it look so simple! Thank you for the great info-it’s certainly a confidence booster!
Thanks or the tutorials!
Wow, great idea to divide up the makers. I’m running on over to PukingPastilles right now!
Thanks for the links! I have a singer… but I currently have no need for button holes. Great references though!
Love the great tutorials, thank you to all the ladies, I enjoyed being a part of this, very informative!
Thanks, Georgia, for a very clear tutorial for using the Brother buttonhole foot. I’m less intimidated now…!
What a great set of tutorials! My daughter just went to camp & learned how to make one…now I can ‘study at home’ and catch up with her! grin!
These are nice to look at as I am considering getting a new machine in the near future. Currently my main machine is the classic Singer Featherweight straight stitch machine. Many people do not know that with the proper attachment you can make buttonholes with this machines. If anyone would like to see a tutorial on making buttonholes with this machine contact me. I will put it on my blog, and tell Sew Mama Sew about it.
But I have an Elna!!!
Thank you so much for the machine specific instructions. Each machine has it’s own little way of doing the same things, so it’s nice to know the tricks.
I have a Brother and really like the buttonhole foot it has, but it’s really interesting to see how the other brands deal with it! All I can say is thank goodness for the automatic buttonhole feature on newer machines. I grew up using my mum’s old Bernina from the 50s and while it was a sterling machine I used to dread buttonholes with a vengeance! The fear is gone now and it makes sewing a more enjoyable experience all-round! Except I don’t do them often enough to always remember the steps so end up having to do a practice one (well I should but I don’t always and usually regret it!).
OK, she is going to post another Pfaff buttonhole tutorial later so I have her bookmarked. Thank you!
That is awesome and oh so helpful to see it done on MY machine! Thanks.
Nice! This is so handy! My Viking’s buttonhole attachment doesn’t have that super handy plastic part for getting the length just right… I want to upgrade my foot!
Great Janome tutorial. The only thing I would add is to place a pin at the end of the buttonhole before cutting. It saves cutting through the end – as I have learnt to my cost!
I previously owned a Kenmore, which I ended up upgrading to another model Kenmore due to some issues (and a total breakdown in customer service…nother story) one of which was the buttonhole. On this flukey failure of a machine the buttonholer was a huge cause of hairpulling.
When I upgraded, I didnt try to buttonhole for months becuase I was afraid the same issues would plague me. They so did NOT! There is nothing more beautiful than an automatic buttonholer.
That is a beautiful button hole!! I always admire and love a good button hole…weird, I know!
Thanks for the Viking tut!
I can’t wait to pass this along to my friends! Thanks!
Thanks for the tutorials!
Thanks, I am learning a lot this month!
thank you gabrielle for the pfaff tutorial, this will help me immensely!!
Great info! I used to always pull out my old Kenmore to do buttonholes because I didn’t know how to do them on my Bernina! Thanks!
Thanks Georgia, I checked out her tutorial. It really isn’t as intimidating as it seems. Once you get the hang of it it really is pretty easy!
Thanks ladies!
What a great idea! Thanks!!
Passing on this post to my Mom! Would also love to see a Singer tute. One day I’ll upgrade…
Unfortunately my Brother is much more basic and has a different foot. I think I will still try it on my own.
THANK YOU for these tutorials! Just what I needed
Would love a Singer tutorial too!!!
Great info! I’m replacing my dinky Brother with my grandmother’s Bernina–maybe I can finally figure out buttonholes!
Great tutorial! just what I needed
YAY! sewing machine month is THE BEST!! i am learning sooo much!
I could have used this the first time I used my machine for a buttonhole and ended up making it in the wrong direction!!!
Great idea for a tutorial.
I love love love that there is now more specific directions for my Brother! That’s the same foot I have and until today I had NO clue how to use it!!! Thanks again Sew Mama, Sew!!
Why do buttonholes always seem so intimidating – especially right before you start them? Thanks for the tutorial!
Thanks for the information. Awesome!
donminic22@hotmail.com
Makes everything look easier than i thought. Thanks for the tutorials!
Thank you for the information. I have a brother and I had try to use it to make a buttonhole but it didn’t turn out well. Now I’m going back to try it again with this tutorial.
I can’t wait to check this out.
I am so hoping you have this planned for installing zippers too, as these are both things that hold me back from attemping many project!!!
thank you SO much,
lynn
Wow, this is so great! Thank you!
great tutorial collection, thanks!
What a great collection of tutorials for the different machines. Thanks!
Thanks for this info. I have made buttonholes, but these instructions really do help.
I was just looking through these for the first time and thought that you missed the opportunity to show how to make buttonholes using a button-holer attachment for old machines. There are a few of us out there with machines of that vintage who keep it all old-school. In comparing the button holes I get from my button-holer to those from my mom’s fancy computerized machine, I actually now have gotten to the point where I prefer the wacky old attachment!
I’ve also got a buttonhole tutorial for Bernina posted here on my blog. Enjoy! http://www.dognamedbanjo.com/2009/01/05/bernina-440-qe-button-hole-tutorial/
I have a Brother machine as well but mine does not do the automatic buttonhole. I have the 4-step buttonhole that requires that you change the dial from a,b,c to d at each step. My problem is the stitches are crazy loose! it doesn’t seem to be related to the stitch tension for regular stitches. Anyone have any insight? I have made buttonholes on other machines without this issue.
You rescued me, and helped one of my students with this tutorial. We were in the middle of a sewing lesson, when we had to do buttonholes on my student’s Bernina. I’ve used a lot of machines, and made buttonholes too, but the Bernina had me stumped as to how to adjust/determine the size of the buttonhole. We typed our request into google, and got your tutorial! Thanks for a wonderful tutorial;0)
As I find time, I’ll be searching your site for more useful information, and will refer sewing enthusiasts here. Kudos!