Critique my home made buttonhole

[bloke11]

Thought of making my own functional sleeve buttonholes, so I gave it a go.

Made this using polyester thread, no gimp, keyhole cut using scissors. Cheated a little by sewing the buttonhole first using machine. I don't know if this is legitimate but I find that dampening the area with water before stitching helps tremendously. So is this passable or thrashable? Fire at will, gents.

 

[Maccimus]

Most people here can't sew a single button, not to mention a button hole.
Well done!

 

[David Reeves]

Nice, Gimp will make a big difference like using oils instead of kids paint. You should aim for around 60 stitches around a small button hole.

 

[bloke11]

^Thanks gentlemen, I'll try and do more stitches. Oh, again I cheated by drawing the outline of the buttonhole around first before sewing. Can't walk or sew in a straight line so can't help it.

 

[gj555]

I am so bad at precision tasks with my hands that I would not even be able to attempt this.

Would I be wrong to presume that there is some "cheating" going on even for professionally made buttonholes?

Speaking of buttonholes, what is the characteristic of a good buttonhole? What should we be looking for in respect of quality?

Here is one from my latest jacket. How do I know if it is well crafted or not?

 

[gshen]

Inspired by Jeffreyd's blog posts, i tried making some milanese style buttonholes awhile ago. No time to practice more unfortunately! These were done with Gutermann silk twist and proper gimp:

First two


Next two (accidentally cut a thread!)


Another two, better!

 

[ThinkDerm]

gorgeous!

 

[MyOtherLife]

Originally Posted by ThinkDerm

gorgeous!

+1

 

[Ivar]

These all look great! Would love to do the same to my non-functional buttonholes, but I can't sew for nothing.

 

[a tailor]

Originally Posted by bloke11

Thought of making my own functional sleeve buttonholes, so I gave it a go.

Made this using polyester thread, no gimp, keyhole cut using scissors. Cheated a little by sewing the buttonhole first using machine. I don't know if this is legitimate but I find that dampening the area with water before stitching helps tremendously. So is this passable or thrashable?

Fire at will, gents.

bring the stitches closer together and your hired.
use a blanket stitch instead of machine to hold everything together.
try a simple bar tack at the end.
you can buy buttonhole twist at any fabric store.
use beeswax on the twist.

 

[a tailor]

Originally Posted by gshen

Inspired by Jeffreyd's blog posts, i tried making some milanese style buttonholes awhile ago. No time to practice more unfortunately! These were done with Gutermann silk twist and proper gimp:

First two


Next two (accidentally cut a thread!)


Another two, better!




your doing great.
do a small bar tack at the end. only about 5 or 6 coils at the most.

when your finished.
baste the button hole closed with about 3 stitches. and close the throat of the key hole
with 3 more. then use a pen or pencil point and your fingers to shape the keyhole.
then press the buttonhole first steam then no steam.

 

[inlandisland]

OP - That looks pretty good - your stitches are nice and uniform. I'm just curious - when you say you used no gimp, do you mean you didn't use real gimp, or that you used nothing at all? (I think I see a thread running behind each stitch, but it's hard to tell).

 

[Benjamin E.]

bloke11, it looks like you're getting the hang of it. Like a tailor said, you need to keep the stitches closer together. Gimp helps a lot. I used to make mine without and they were flat and lifeless. Since I don't have access to proper gimp, I twisted two heavy cotton threads together and it was a big improvement. It's not really cheating to sew it by machine at first; St. Andrews does this and they make beautiful buttonholes. Keep it up!

gshen, the last two look really nice. From the picture of the white buttonhole on the blog, it looks like the purls are meant to be under the gimp, not to the side. That said, I've had a lot of trouble keeping the purls under the gimp, myself. It probably comes with practice. I'll try and get some pictures of my own up.

 

[GBR]

OK but do NOT give up the day job.

 

[mktitsworth]

Definitely better than anything I can do. Congrats.