Today we are getting to know our Button Hole Foot. It’s long, it’s skinny, it’s usually plastic, and for a lot of people it’s intimidating. So today we wanted to give you a quick introduction to it’s parts and their purposes to take the mystery out of the foot that looks like a ski.
Below is a photo of the button hole foot from my babylock Elizabeth sewing machine. And while the appearance of these feet may differ slightly from machine to machine they all will have these same parts (usually!).
Let’s go through the parts I have labeled.
BUTTON HOLE CENTERING MARKS AND WINDOW: When you are creating a button hole you will mark on your garment where you would like your button hole to be placed. Then as you slide your garment under your button hole foot use the window and corresponding marks to center the beginning of your button hole. This allows you to place your button hole exactly where you wanted it!
PIN: This is where the foot will attach to the shank of your sewing machine.
PRESSURE FOOT SCALE: This you will use in conjunction with the 5mm mark (located in the same area) when your button is larger than your button guide plate. (Honestly…I’ve never used buttons larger than guide…so…don’t worry about this part too much.)
BUTTON GUIDE PLATE: This plate is adjustable and can be pulled out and then pushed back in. You use this part to load your button in.
So now you know the parts.
Now what? Well…when using your button foot, first place your button securely in the button guide plate.
Next remove the foot that currently is on your sewing machine and replace it with your button foot (that is holding your button securely).
From here instructions vary from machine to machine and you will need to refer to your manual for proper instructions.
For me I just need to pull down the button hole lever (it’s that grey thing in the photo above) and place it behind the bracket on my button hole foot. Then I select a stitch, center my fabric, lower the foot and go to town.
To see a video of a button hole foot in action just click HERE. (It’s an old video tutorial of Elizabeth sewing a button hole but the info is still as good today as it was in 2014.)
So there you have it…it’s a little awkward and strange to look at but once you get to know it it totally makes sense…just like a platypus…or something like that. 🙂
-liZ
