Yet another reason why I hardly ever make button-up blouses (or anything button-up for that matter), is because I hate making buttonholes. It is SO HARD and takes a lot of patience and nit-picky techniques to get a good row of straight, evenly placed, balanced buttonholes. And yesterday's buttonholes were no different....even though my blouse now has the best row of buttonholes I have ever made-- a silver lining.
It all starts with placement and size of the buttonholes. I think all women agree with me that the gaping open blouse from a left-side view is the worse thing that happens when it comes to blouses. I hate it so much, that I decided to add twice as many buttons to make sure the girls are out of view and in place, which I think more blouses should consider in the production process. I also decided on 3/8" buttons, which means 1/2" buttonholes. Each pin represents the top of a new buttonhole in the picture below.
After about doing six buttonholes, I realized that I was still making the buttonholes too small. This is another reason why I hate this process: the Bernina buttonhole foot isn't the clearest of feet. When you think you've measured out a 1/2" on the foot measure, it's really more like 3/8" when the hole is opened (which is precisely what I did). Thank goodness I was smart and didn't open the holes until I was completely sure I had it right, because making new buttonholes on holes that are already made and cut out is near impossible. So I picked out all the darn stitching and made all new buttonholes that were extremely straight and even, mind you. A pat on the back.
I have been anonymously reading your blog for awhile now, but I just have to break the silence to share a tip I learned when it comes to blood... As I was getting my WEDDING DRESS pinned for alterations, the cute, old seamstress poked herself with a pin and BLED on MY dress. I'm sure you can imagine the horror. She told me not to worry and ran into the back to grab... Hydrogen Peroxide! She put a little on a cotton ball, dabbed it on the blood, and it pulled it right off. It looked like a magic trick because it worked so well. I don't know about using it on any color other than white, but store that little tidbit away for the next time you're making a white blouse :)
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