Button holes are built into this machine and they are easy to use. Start off by touching
zero. You're going to notice that you'll get to the stitch of a button hole, the foot that
it has you put on is not lettered, but it is the one with the red wheel you find in
your accessory box. That's what that little nub sticking out is all about. The symbol
of the reverse button is going to indicate that it's going to start at this part and
then go backwards and then turn around for you completely.
I'm going to show you where you plug this in, but before I do, I'm going to show you
there I s a special white crown, right here, and it'll indicate as a white marking. Should
you not have this at the tip, even with a white line on the foot, before you start to
stitch a message will come up and remind you that that needs to be adjusted. I don't try
to get this just perfect before I stitch because once I put my fabric in it tends to move it.
It's the last thing I do, but just so you know that's what we need to do.
Take off your pressure foot, just slide it on like a regular foot. Now you will notice
in your accessory box you will have an identical foot, as the button hole foot, but without
the added needed wheel that's on it that is plugged in. This is a manual version so you
can actually make them longer than you might need or be able to repair button holes. I'll
show you how this works. I'll even show you how to do a corded button hole.
We're going to take our foot, the little plug in here, this part, from the front of the
machine to the back it's about halfway back that you will ... and you can almost feel
it with your finger or tip your head underneath so you can feel where it needs to go. Then
make sure you give it a good press all the way up. If you don't push it all the way in
what's going to happen is the button hole is going to go backwards and keep going backwards
and won't ever turn around for you. We call those runaway button holes in our classes.
Just give it a little push, make sure it doesn't go up any further and you know you're there.
Next, take your button and place it on the measuring tool on the front of your machine.
Down here where it says zero there's a dotted circle. Place the button at the zero mark
and come over here. This one says 17 millimeters. On the screen, you're going to notice, when
you go right into a button hole ... well actually once you plug the foot in it will bring up
one more step that will indicate you telling the machine how long you want the button hole
to be. If your arrows up or down you can set the lengths. I'm going to just set it to 17
millimeters, you can shorten it or lengthen it. It always starts at 16 so that's how we
measure this in.
Now next one thing I'm going to always advise is keep in mind the button hole is going to
go reverse first. If you start right here you're going to run out of fabric really soon.
Just turn your fabric, start towards the edge of it. Now that the fabrics in here I'm going
to lean this way to the left and I'm going to roll this red wheel so the white crown
and the straight line are lined up. If I don't when I start to stitch, I'm going to step
on the foot control, and it will have a message of just white area to white line. Touch okay
to remove that and lift up the presser foot and adjust I t properly.
Now when I go to sew it's going to do the whole button hole for me. It's going to stitch
all the way back, straight stitch, and it will turn around and with the [inaudible 00:03:22]
stitch coming back over the straight stitch it just stitched. It'll come back down to
where we started and it'll turn around and go back to the end again, lock it at the top
so that little tack. All you need to do is keep your foot on the foot control or you
could've push the start and stop button and not had to do anything. Tacks at the top,
then locks, and just keep your foot on the foot control until it comes to a complete
stop. Raise up the presser foot and cut your thread. That is how easy a button hole can
be done.
Open this up and then test your button through it, make sure it's the right size and then
you can continue on. All you need to do is put a starting point of where each button
hole is to start and then continue with however many you need. Now there are other styles
of button holes up on the top of your machine so stitches in the first row, stitch 23, 24,
25, 26, 27, 28 are all different button holes. Now some of these will require you to take
this foot off, but let me show you first a keyhole button hole.
I'm going to pick stitch number 26. You can also put in for the length and measurement
you want. Set the white crown once again to be even with the white line and then go ahead
and sew. A keyhole button hole is for any button that has a shank, you know that comes
out the bottom without the eyes. Usually found on a coat. That will allow for a little extra
thread to set in the key part of it. There's room for that extra shank and not just in
the square part at the end of a traditional button hole.
Let's just keep on going down here again. I just step on the foot control sew until
it stops, raise up the foot, cut the thread and that is a beautiful keyhole button hole.
You've got other ones up here like a stretch button hole. If I'd gone down over to the
side here, told it I'm doing stretch fabric and told it I'm doing a button hole, it's
going to pick the right button hole for me. Even with the new little symbol that indicates
when to cord it and which foot to actually use.
Let's go ahead, I'm going to take this foot off, switch over to my manual button hole
foot. It has a little nub on the end that is what we're going to use around with the
cord prior to putting this in. I'm just going to take some cord here, cut off a length that
I can ... make it long enough because you can actually double it up. Same thing, we're
going to start at the, you might say, beginning of it because it is going to sew backwards.
I'm going to take the cord and it's loop here and hook it around that back part of the foot.
Now the foot actually has two grooves underneath it that is going to track this cord. When
I go ahead and stitch we're going to go ahead and it's going to just stitch up backwards
with the set and stitches. It's actually pulling the cord for me. Now with this one I would
have need to mark a beginning and an ending point. I'm going to just go ahead and sew
a little bit further. When I'm there that's what the reverse button is for. A touch of
that button will tell the machine when to turn around. We'll give it a tap at the top
and then go ahead and stitch down the right side of my cord. I will need to stop it myself
because it doesn't know where we started. Touch the reverse button again and you'll
even see there's a little arrow showing you what part it's going to stitch.
Now it's going to do the tack at the bottom and then it'll stop for me. Done. A corded
button hole is for when you have fabrics that are a little stretchy. You don't want it to
actually pull out of shape. Look at this. Then all you do take one of the legs of the
cord, we'll get this one over here, and gibe it a pull. It's all nice and loose here. When
you pull it down so it disappears, then you take your scissors and I just cut it straight.
Some people will actually take these on a needle and stick them down through the fabric
and tie them to the back side, but they're really not going to go anywhere because they've
been stitched over. It also gives it a little bit of a raised feel to them. It looks very
professional, but you'll see that that has no give whatsoever.
Try out your other button holes, but hole number 28 is a straight stitch one, that one
will be good for leathers or vinyl. Something where you don't want to actually perforate
it when you sew. You also have a jeans button hole and an oval one at both ends. You've
got a variety. It just depends on what you want it to look like on your finished project.