Video: Making a Button Hole Using Zigzag Stitch

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Learn how to make a button hole using a zigzag stitch and other tips and tricks for sewing using zigzag patterns in this free sewing video series taught by an expert seamstress.

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805125507 Jan 12, 2012
I have an older machine...no "feed dog" to be found...
evuser4595 Feb 06, 2009
Hello I have a brother sewing machine and I am a beginner in sewing so I can not locate the feed dog better yet I don't quite understand what it even is. I watched your video about 100 times too. Please help
evuser4595 Feb 06, 2009
Hello I have a brother sewing machine and I am a beginner in sewing so I can not locate the feed dog better yet I don't quite understand what it even is. I watched your video about 100 times too. Please help
kawidirtrider Dec 04, 2008
Make a slit with a razor knife or a single edge razor blade. If you are real steady you can pinch the fabric and fold it in half inbetween the vertical lines (zig zag). Leave about 1/16th to 1/18th of an inch without a slit from each of the vertical lines (non zig zag)
kawidirtrider Dec 04, 2008
Make a slit with a razor knife or a single edge razor blade. If you are real steady you can pinch the fabric and fold it in half inbetween the vertical lines (zig zag). Leave about 1/16th to 1/18th of an inch without a slit from each of the vertical lines (non zig zag)

Video Transcript

I am Jennifer with A Perfect Fit Alterations. We’re located at 102 S. Main Street, Burleson, Texas. Our phone number is 817-447-3522. Today we’re going to make a buttonhole using the zigzag stitch. Now most machines come equipped with a buttonhole attachment, or a foot, or something special you use. This time we’re going to make a buttonhole just using our regular foot, and I’m going to show you how you can do it just in case you loose your foot or you don’t know how to use it. Okay I have a piece of sample denim. Now when you’re making a buttonhole, you want to use a tear away interfacing that goes on the back of where you’re making the buttonhole. That helps stabilize your fabric, because the buttonhole stitch that you’re going to be doing on here, if you have a lightweight piece of fabric, it’s going to draw the fabric up and it’s not going to look very good. Alright, we have chosen a pretty good size button you might use on the front of a pair of pants or on a dress or something of that nature, and we’re going to mark a line on the fabric with our marking pencil. We’re going to mark a cross line where we’re going to bar tack to make our buttonhole. Now this, when you iron it you want to use a chalk that disappears when you iron it. We’ve marked our fabric. And now for video purposes we’re going to use a darker color thread so that it’ll show up and you can see what I’m doing here, but you want to match your thread to your fabric because you really don’t want to see your buttonhole; you want it just to be there and serve as a buttonhole, but you don’t want it to be real obvious. You’ve adjusted your length on your machine, you’re going to sew down on one side of the fabric, you want your stitches to be close together, be sure and lock them when you get to the end, and you want to sew as straight as possible along your line here. I’m going to do the other side…now on the ends we’re going to use a bar tack, so you position your pressure foot, you’re going to drop your feed dogs which are at the back of your machine, and you’re going to change your zigzag stitch to a very wide stitch. You’re going to go back and forth on the end of the button hole, and you’re going to go to the other end of the buttonhole, go back and forth on the other end. Now if you don’t quite get to the end there, cause I’ve made a little mistake and it’ll probably be better anyway, just put a little extra bar tack at the end and that should fix the mistake, cause there’s going to be a lot of stress on the end of the buttonholes anyway, cause once we’ve opened them… And we’ve made our buttonhole.

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Making a Button Hole Using Zigzag Stitch

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