Agh, I forgot to label the very top buttonhole on the front of that tan 1720's coat at 13:46 ! It is also functional. Just that one and the few at the waist. I also forgot to mention that, if you have a very bulky button, you can figure out how long the hole needs to be by wrapping a little strip of paper around the middle. Also, for the pieced lining, the order doesn't really matter. I put the main part of the lining in first here, but you can add the little pieces first if you want to, I'm doing that on a waistcoat right now.
As a seamstress myself, and a quilter who often needs to evenly space things, your trick for accordion folding the paper strip is brilliant!! And your hand stitches are exquisite.
So this is the day I’m shamed out of using a seam ripper. ‘Twas a long time coming. I will forever hear “do you also cut your bread with a chainsaw?” And do better because of it. Thank you so much- I actually didn’t know there were so many different ways to cut out a button hole!
I've seen several buttonhole videos but the detail and clarity in this one far exceeds anything I've ever seen. So much knowledge and experience packed into one short video!! So much patience!!! You win!!!!
Leftie here, thanks for the mirrored shot, it definitely helps. I have something called a seam picker -- razer thin curved blade with a very sharp point. It works well for cutting the holes, but I think I will look through the tool box for a good wood carving chisel we have.
I look at the title of the video and think oh God not another video about buttonholes. What could Vincent possibly say that could be of any… Oh! Oh myyyyyy! What a wonderful video! Big win yet again!!! Thanks!!!
I don't know why you popped up on my recommended, but I'm so happy you did. You are so awesome to watch and listen to. You are extremely articulate and seem so knowledgeable. You seem like a very old soul that should have been born centuries ago. I will continue to watch your videos even though I don't sew. I crochet amongst other things.
I love how clearly you explain things, how thorough you are in describing the differences between techniques, and how if you are showing video of a technique that varies from what exactly you’re describing, you tell us what those variations are, so we aren’t confused because something looks different. I also love how much of the actual sewing you let us see - the repetition really helps because it allows me to keep the video rolling while I try to replicate the stitch, as opposed to having to stop and rewind! I love your videos! Keep making them!
Thank you!! I will definitely make more videos, I have so many ideas! Explaining things as thoroughly as possible is my main goal, and I'm glad it's working!
Just to add on to this: showing the whole process of basting, cutting, whip stitching, waxing the thread, etc, several times is great for getting it to stick! You seem to have a knack for teaching and I already look forward to your next video 😄
This is a much better tutorial for how to make buttonholes than the others I've seen, if nothing else because you (rightly) assume what we will try to do that is wrong and explain why not to do it, rather than only telling us what we should do and naively assuming we will do that rather than use things we alrady have. It certainly explains why my first attempt at buttonholes went so terribly (on a cushion in a spot nobody will see, so I figured it was a safe place to mess up rather than clothing)
I randomly found this dude on google when i was trying to convince my mom that 1700s/1800s clothing arent ugly,didnt work but atleast i found a cool dude
I'm so glad that you're releasing your second video in 2 months! When you disappeared for half a year, I even worried whether everything was okay with you. Sewing buttonholes is not difficult, but it is very painstaking and patient. And your soft, calm voice is very relaxing and calming. Can I have a video about men's scarves? What did they wear in the 1700s? What did ordinary townspeople and aristocrats wear during the Seven Years' War? How could a person’s status be determined by looking at a scarf? What did they start wearing during the fall of the French monarchy? Were Jabot popular throughout the 18th century, or was it just a relic of the old pepper shakers at some point? Like the big wigs worn by servants and judges?
Thank you, yes I'm fine! Sometimes I don't work on any videos for quite a while, because I have a large variety of projects that are not videos. The patchwork one was also quite time consuming. It's difficult to make videos in such a small room, but I am moving soon and will have more space, so I should be able to make them more efficiently then. I have a lot of ideas for videos, but I try not to post about them ahead of time because I never know which ones I'll actually make or when they'll be finished. I am not very interested in making videos of just sitting and talking about historical things though, nearly all the ones I plan on making are about specific sewing projects. But to answer your question about jabots - those terrible stacked ruffled things that so many film costumes have are not accurate to the 18th century at all, they're an invention of 19th century fantasy paintings and fancy dress balls, and the fact that they still appear on so many costumes to this day makes me sad. In the very early 18th (and late 17th) century they wore neck cloths that were tied, and often had lace ends, but they looked different - they weren't stacked in tiers and there were just the two ends of about equal length. Long neck cloths were also fashionable early in the century, sometimes with fringe or tassels on the ends, and you could twist them and stick the ends through a waistcoat buttonhole. Around the 1720s the neck stock came into fashion, which was just a simple band of linen gathered into two tabs that buckled in the back, and then the waistcoat would be worn partially unbuttoned so that the shirt ruffles stuck out. (I wear one in my 1730's video, and I also have a couple of pinterest boards with portraits sorted by decade, if you want to see examples of all these.) Stocks were fashionable for most of the rest of the century. People still wore long neck cloths for quite a few decades too, but they were less formal. Cravats tied in a little bow came into fashion in the 1780s, but stocks stuck around for longer in formal settings. They wore stocks in the 19th century too, but those ones were very different and much more structured.
@@vincentbriggs1780 I'm so happy that you answered me! =) Glad you're okay. I hope your new home will please you with good, large windows and sufficient lighting for sewing. There is nothing worse than sewing in a small space where it is impossible to freely arrange fabrics for cutting. This is a real sewing hell. I hope you will feel comfortable, cozy and comfortable in your new place. Happy Housewarming! And I almost forgot to compliment you on your patchwork. The work was complex, painstaking and required a lot of attention and time, but the result is very nice! This reminded me a little of your work with candy wrappers. This is one of my favorite videos. My favorite thing is about death's head buttons and sleeve buttons! I love watching them over and over again. I hope you will have many more projects and even more energy and time to implement them. Health and good mood to you. Don't overwork yourself! From Siberia, with best regards.
I love that you address the little things that one might not consider before starting or that might go wrong e.g. measuring out thread, how to tie off, how to start a new thread in the middle, etc
So happy to see you again! We don't know each other, but I'm a fan of your work. Thank you for this, really good tips like the stab stitch in the corner so it doesn't collapse (that has happened to me many times), the wax just a bit of the thread to hide it within the buttonhole stitches. And the machine stitch first and hand sew over blows my mind, how clever.
Many thanks for the greatly detailed video on button holes. And enjoyed your seam ripper humor. (Guilty🫢) Also the covered buttons video. You make everything so clear! Keep up the good work!! Your 80 year old friend, Rachel
:waving:: So happy to see you! These are lovely examples, and--I'm ashamed to say--it never occurred to me that I could just practice buttonholes in a random piece of material that's not going to end up in the finished piece. Thank you!
I’m really enjoying your content! Thank you for sharing your fascinating hobby with us all. I love having these insights for when I next watch a movie or see something about these time periods.
I'm not a person who sews or would describe themselves as being into this sort of thing. That being said... I enjoy your videos quite a bit and I'd like to Thank you for sharing. I appreciate you and your sense of humor. Who knows - I may take up sewing!
Great video! Gimp thread is the padding thread used to bulk up the button hole. Love the variations including the details of linings and the bit about working hand made button hole over machine made. That works a treat.
Thanks so much for this - I'm a seamstress who HATES putting in buttonholes. Hates. HATE HATES HATES. (Gee, think I dislike them lol) and especially using a machine. All the gadgets on modern machines make my head ache (gram taught me on a treadle and I wasn't allowed to touch the electric one she bought me until I could make a dress) to the point I'll go out of my way to alter patterns for either laces, zippers, clasps or even velcro. This actually make great sense and I'm bookmarking this video for the next time I put in buttons (which should be next week... I got rid of all my warm clothes this spring since I lost a ton of weight... but forgot winter comes again and now I'm looking at a pretty empty closet. And drawers.) so thanks so much!
I'm now renewed in my resolve to re-do the cuffs of a couple of my shirts, it's just the cuffs! I can cut a million of them out of scraps I already have! it'll be FINE! 😤
This is incredibly helpful thank you very much for the detailed instructions! (Im making an 18th c coat for myself rn and am at the last stage with adding on buttons)
Awesome! My grandma taught me buttonholes 50 years ago, but I became accustomed to my machine. I coul have done with this video the first time I had to do one by hand recently on a heavy jacket.
I love your channel! I'm crocheting right now and i havent yet needed to sew an 18th century button hole but I absolutely love your voice, and I enjoy listening you describe what you're doing :^) Im sure I'll sew better buttonholes from now on 👍
This teaches excellent things about buttonhole making that I had never seen before! The paper accordion measure will be used on my current project that has many many buttons 💖
A new video 🎉😀 I really like your videos and the way you explain things. That being said, I'm saving this video for a rainy day, so I haven't actually watched it (yet. Sorry. Thought I'd leave a comment for the algorithm instead.)
Thank you for this very practical tutorial! Just finished my fifth buttonhole and, wow, the difference between that and the first one is like night and day. I highly recommend making atleast one practice hole before cutting your nice work 😊
Thank you for such an informative video! I love handmade buttonholes, even if I don't love making them. Mine look a lot more like the historical one on the left side of the screen at the 16:37 timestamp than your lovely examples. I only recently discovered size 8 perle cotton thread and how nice (no wax needed!) it is, but only saw black, white, and red available in my local shop. Your video reminded me to internet-search for more options, and finding them makes me want to make another garment with lots of buttons, lol!
Thanks for remembering us lefties. I appreciate it more than you'd think. And I promise I only use the thread ripper to start the buttonhole if I can't get my snips in, because I did learn pretty fast that yeah it is like using a chainsaw on sourdough... I promise when I find my littlest chisel when I clean the garage, I'll sharpen it into a buttonhole chisel and smarten up. There are a few extra steps you take with your method that I hadn't thought of so I'm really glad I watched this before next time I have to do a buttonhole. I've used the cotton crochet yarn successfully (I adore using the rainbow stuff but never know how much I'll need so I like your measuring suggestion) and since I haven't found buttonhole twist, I did order a few colours of topthread last Fabricville order and that sure works a lot better than regular thread. I like to practice my buttonhole stitch by rreinforcing the edges of my work pants pockets that generally have a clip on knife trying to destroy them. I like knots too for security but it feels like each buttohole stitch IS a knot, so an additional one seems silly :)
washable markers come out with hot water straight from the tap, so if you want to use it on something that won't get washed frequently, you can just hold the garment in the sink, making sure that you directly hit each bit of marker
Perhaps this is also blasphemy, but I like to use a small scalpel with a pointed tip to cut my buttonholes. It goes through pretty much anything like butter, even when there are multiple layers. While definitely not historically accurate, it's the method that I've found gives me the cleanest, straightest results.
It's still a sharp blade going more or less downwards, so it sounds fine! Seam rippers are usually a lot duller and they mangle the edges of the fabric, and the duller they are the harder you have to push, increasing the risk of ripping right through the end and into the rest of the garment. And cutting through fabric with seam rippers dulls them faster.
I want to put a sticker on my sewing machine saying "sewing ugly garbage is the first step on the road to sewing beautiful things". Or maybe on a project bag. Does wonky embroidery count towards overall sewing skills? I'm going to say yes!
I always forget the overcasting step which is bad and unhelpful. I usually use the seam-ripper but only to open a little hole big enough to put the thread snips through and then do the actual cutting with the snips. But also I regret to inform you that one of the common names of seam-rippers in Spanish is "buttonhole opener" 😬
Вы бы знали, как я обрадовался, когда увидел Ваше новое видео!) выпускайте их по-чаще, они восхитительны!) большое спасибо за полезную и интересную информацию!
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