Marking Perfect Buttonholes on a Homemade Garment

Lining up and marking buttonholes can be one of the biggest challenges when making your own homemade garments. Common suggestions include marking your desired buttonholes with pins or using dressmaker's chalk to indicate when to place the button. Unfortunately, these methods are not always reliable and can lead to a crooked line of buttons when you assemble your finished garment. Here is an alternative method of marking perfect buttonholes on your homemade clothing.

Marking perfect buttonholes on a homemade garment: Use a paper towel as a guide

To mark the buttonholes on your homemade garment, pin a paper towel onto the fabric, keeping the edge of the paper towel slightly left of your desired buttonhole location. If the garment is long, you may need to use more than one paper towel to cover its entire length. Lay out your buttons on these paper towels, measuring them to be sure they are spaced out evenly. When in doubt, measure with a ruler or measuring tape to check the distance between each button. Mark these locations by drawing a line on the paper towel at the top and bottom of each button spot on your homemade apparel.

Marking perfect buttonholes on a homemade garment: Stitch the buttonholes

Now you are ready to create the buttonholes for your homemade garment. This is especially easy if you have a sewing machine with a buttonhole stitch setting. If not, the narrow zig-zag stitch works well, as long as you set the stitch length to be short enough. Set the homemade apparel into your sewing machine, aligning the needle right next to the first buttonhole mark made on the paper towel. Lower your needle and stitch until you reach the lower mark for that particular buttonhole. Following your marked paper towel, stitch each edge of the desired buttonhole. Repeat these steps until you have created a buttonhole outline for each of the necessary locations on your new garment. Be sure to trim any hanging threads after taking your homemade garment off of the sewing machine.

Marking perfect buttonholes on a homemade garment: Line up the buttons with your guide

Now you are ready to make the actual holes and sew the buttons on the other side of your homemade garment. Using a seam ripper, puncture holes inside of your stitched buttonhole outlines. Trim any loose threads or fabric that may be hanging from the buttonholes. Unpin the marked paper towel and pin it to the other side of your garment, lining up the buttonhole markings with the actual holes you have made. This will give you an easy guide to follow when sewing the buttons on this side of the garment. Once you have finished, unpin and discard your paper towel. You should now have a homemade garment with perfectly aligned buttons and buttonholes.