I Painted Thread!!!

 This buttonhole above used to be medium  gray in color, well, at least the bobbin side of it which is what you see here. In my unbridled enthusiasm to complete this button down shirt, I had put the right brown thread in my beloved vintage Kenmore machine which matched what was used for construction in my Pfaff.  You see, the Kenmore does better BHs with far less aggravation. That enthusiasm knew that I had a medium gray in the bobbin but no one was going to see what was underneath the button band right?

Well, that not well thought out philosophy worked just fine until I completed all the buttonholes. This gave me backsides as you see above, gray and not matching. Ahh, that troublesome top collar band buttonhole, always the troublemaker! Of course it flipped out and was gray as the one you see above and looked ridiculous as all the other BHs were brown. I hated myself for the next 24 hours. I put the shirt aside as I was not thrilled about ripping about a buttonhole in such a prominent spot. Major ugh. The next morning, waking from sleep, I got the idea to "paint" the buttonhole. It worked out rather brilliantly as you can see in the top photo.  Below are the regular buttonholes on the front. 

That collar band BH is now the same color!  Here's what you need to accomplish the same.

* An Inktense ink color pencil in the same color or pretty close. I splurged on a 36 pencil pack some years back and have definitely recieved my money's worth. 

 

* Purell or other clear alcohol based hand sanitizer. This is your medium for painting with the pencil. It works better than water as it does not spread as water would. It helps the color go where you want it and stay there. It also dries quickly. 

* An iron to heat set your paint. Inktense pencils are made to be permanent, and they are, once they are set with heat. This can be done with your iron. I like to use a press cloth just in case there is transfer. 

How:

Put your buttonhole to be painted under some good light and magnification if you need it. 

Pour out a dot of Purell onto a jar lid or other palette type surface, the size of a pea at most. 

Take your pencil in the closest matching color. Make sure it has a nice sharp point. These pencils are good at keeping their points despite use. Dip just that point into the teensiest amount of Purell. 

Now go color your buttonhole, drawing right on top of the threads and being careful to not go beyond the threads. I did not find this hard. If you use too much Purell it could overflow outside the threads. I mean the teensiest dot of Purell is all that is needed. 

Let it dry flat. Proceed with other buttonholes as needed, being careful to not touch the previous ones. 

I wait 24 hours. Then I press the next day with a press cloth on a heat appropriate to the fabric for about 10 seconds.  That's what usually works for me but press as the fabric requires. Do a sample press on a scrap first to make sure you don't damage your fabric. 

Congrats! You have just painted your first buttonhole!

Once again, these Inktense pencils have proven to be a solid member of my notion family. I highly recommend. Valentine's is coming, sewing lovelies!

ETA 02/18/25: I have put my shirt through a normal wash, cool water and regular dryer. The button hole looks even better. It is still the dark color brown, no fading at all, but excess dry paint seems to have disappeared.