Buttonhole Stitches and Their Variations

My favorite category of stitches! While I love a row of Satin stitches with its pretty smooth look, a row of Buttonhole stitches is a delightful challenge. The challenge for me is making the line of these stitches look uniform. The only way I have found that works consistently is to use a hoop. The topic of hoops and their preparation is availabe by clicking the topic.

The Buttonhole stitch seems to remain the same no matter what variations we try with it. As pictured here you will form a loop with the working thread, begin by bringing your needle up at 1, then go down at 2 and form a loose loop, and come up at 3 and tighten the loop.

At this point the variations begin! You could come up right next to 3 in the next hole. Or you could do the Buttonhole Filling stitch and come up at the next bar, but the stitch is done the same in both variations.

When doing the Buttonhole Filling stitch make step 2 in the middle of the wrapped bar each time. If I wrapped that bar 8 times I would place step 2 between wraps 4 and 5.

To stitch a Buttonhole Filling Stitch:                                                

    1. Go over the wrapped bar at 1,

    2. Take the threaded needle over the bar at 2,

    3. Go under the bar at at 3, but over the loop at 1-2,

    4. Go over the next bar at 1 and repeat these steps.

Start the Buttonhole Filling stitches at the first full space on the upper left side of the wraps, see A. Open spaces are left all around the Buttonhole Filling stitches making it appear the stitches are floating in the rectangle of wrapped bars. Use an away knot about eight inches long and a thirty six inch length of Ecru Perle #12 for this stitch. Work across the row and stop at the last full opening at the upper right side, see B. Please note that on a thread this long I bring the needle eye down the length of thread to about twenty four inches and being very careful not to damage the thread as the length of thread shortens I move the eye up along the thread tail bit by bit. Another tip is to use a good needle that has a very smooth eye. Also see the Parked Needle topic.

At B you return your stitching back across the row to the left by doing one sideways stitch as shown in the diagram below.

For the sideways stitch:                

To return to the left side of the sampler:                           

Some Finishing Notes

The thirty six inch length of Perle Cotton should be enough to do the Buttonhole Filling stitches. If not, you will have to wrap some bars twice if you need to start and finish a new thread. For that you will start your new thread on the back of your work in the Klosters or Satin stitches, line the old and new threads on a line of wrapped bars where you will restart your stitching and take a tiny half Cross Stitch over one fabric thread intersection with your new thread. Then wrap over the previous wraps either to the starting point to continue the Buttonhole Filling stitch, or to the Klosters or Satin stitches to cover the old thread and end the thread in the Klosters or Satin stitches. Then you will either cut off the tail or thread it under the Klosters or Satin stitches on the back of your fabric. Or you can split the old and new threads and have one go out the top and one go out the bottom of the row of wraps if that becomes a necessity. Same procedure as above but done twice, once up and once down.

Final Observation

Please take a moment with me to look at this stitch and note that all the very fancy needlework laces use the detached Buttonhole Filling or a variation of it.

                                                                                

Do you see how the Buttonhole Filling stitch is just like the traditional Buttonhole stitch?

That  is it! If you can master the Buttonhole stitch there is nothing at all standing in your way to doing any of the needle laces. Imagine that! ©2001, Linda Fontenot, www.AmericanFolkArts.com