Have you ever sewn hand bound button holes? I wanted a hand made look to a linen garment I’ve been working on and thought I would challenge myself. It’s not as difficult as it seems but it does take some precision and care to get a nice looking end result.
Here is a finished hole next to one in progress. You can see there is basting to hold the layers together and then more around the cut edge of the hole to keep it from fraying whilst adding the final stitches.
This is the best video I watched, it really is an excellent step-by-step. I couldn’t find gimp or good silk so I used a sturdy Coats & Clark outdoor thread to do the binding and also to make my own gimp. This is another good tutorial, if you scroll down a bit there are instructions on making gimp or 4-cord. I added a teeny bit of fray-stop/fabric glue to the twist where I cut it just to be sure it wouldn’t unravel.
I’ve always wanted to try but never did. I once read that Laura Ingalls Wilder (from the Little House books) did 60 in an hour as a teenager working as a seamstress
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AIMR
(Linda -In the year 2025, I am happy to be alive! :us:)
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You definitely chose one of the more difficult fabrics to do a hand sewn buttonhole! Wools are definitely more forgiving and fray a lot less…but what a challenge!
Nice to see tailor details in clothing that is so mass produced now…so, do you have 97, er 96, to go?
The button holes really add a nice touch to the shirt. I do love linen.
Does anyone remember the Little House on the Prairie book where Laura goes to work in town for a seamstress and has to sew all day…and make buttonholes just the right size? I must have checked those books out of the library once a year when I was young. And I read many of them to my kids.
The one about Alonzo growing up and all the chores he had to do really astonished my children.
I have the entire series, I saved up all my pocket money as a kid to buy them! Just today I received a book called “Laura Ingalls Wilder - Farm Journalist” bought with Christmas giftcards. They contain her essays about farm life that she wrote for The Missouri Ruralist, way before she wrote the Little House books. If you haven’t read it, I also strongly recommend her autobiography Pioneer Girl. It’s written for an adult audience and it contains all the details she didn’t consider appropriate for children!
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