Button, Button, Who's got the button???

I am really enjoying the challenge of my CJ. While it is a lot of handwork, I don't mind and find that the amount is just as much as I have put into some other garments I have made. I love handwork and I love "intense sewing" so this is right up my alley. Here you can see all the pieces quilted with the quilting pinned out of the way. I pulled the threads to between the lining and shell and tied them off, that is all the threads except the hem as I am not sure about the length yet.

But this buttonhole thing...............Accckkkk! Between yesterday and today I have focused six and a half hours trying to work out the correct buttonhole for this garment and making samples. I have tested techniques, sewing machines, all sorts of threads, interfacings, etc. My inspiration is  the article by Claire Schaeffer in Great Sewn Clothes. There is a lovely red boucle Chanel jacket with  a great shot of the buttonholes. There is also a detailed sidebar tutorial of the technique to make them. The plan was to make hand wrought BHs on the outside and bound BHs in the lining behind as per the article. After lots of sampling here is what I decided:


Technique: After doing a hand wrought BH as prescribed by Schaeffer, I decided to follow my Aussie friend Lexie's advice. This meant I would do a machine made buttonhole and work the hand stitched one on top. I also did the buttonhole stitch the way I learned, not Schaeffer's. She does a figure eight loop with her needle where as I pick up a single loop. I don't see any difference and will use the method I know.

Machine: The competitors were my ten year old Pfaff and my 35 year old Kenmore. The goal was to make an eyelet style buttonhole. The clear and final winner was the Kenmore Behemoth. Here are the Pfaff eyelet buttonholes. Pfaff puts what I would call a tadpole's ass on the end and they are just awful no matter what other factors were considered.

 Here are the Kenmore eyelets. You are seeing these on the back of the boucle with interfacing. They are really nearly invisible on the fashion fabric.

 Threads: The best results came from using a fine 60 weight cotton thread for the machine buttonhole. Then I worked the hand buttonhole on top in silk buttonhole thread.

Here is my first attempt at the this combination. You can see on one side of the buttonhole  the purls aren't that even but by the time I got to the other side and the eye they were nice and straight. I used the wonderful magnifying glasses I won from Birgitte to do the hand sewing. I think the final product would have been smoother but we are stitching on lumpy inconsistent fabric here, folks. Schaeffer's BHs have lots of negative space between the stitches. If you look about an inch below the BH you will see the machine made eyelet BH in the fine thread, pretty invisible.

So in summary: Kenmore sewing machine, 60 weight embroidery thread for the machine BH. Silk BH twist for the hand BH on top and all of this MANY samples later. You have to make samples but you have heard me preach this before. Here is a peak at the button I chose. It is an antique coppery look with a pinkish undertone from La Mode.  I really like it. I had to get my trim as well. I now know why the overlaps were so large in the original pattern. The jacket needed to accommodate the width of the trim before you hit the BHs centered over CF.

All of the machine buttonholes are made and waiting for their hand worked BHs on top. The hours are adding up. So far the tally is 29.5 hours. None of those hours include muslin making and fitting.

A big thank you to my Aussie friend Lexie. I wish she had a blog so you could see her work. Instead I will link you to her latest impeccable creation. 

Trims are up next and while I have the components, which I needed for measuring, I am going to try a few different options with them. More to come...Bunny