I was always taught, by our dressmaker-teacher mother, my school dressmaking teacher, and by my college teachers when I was doing a fashion course that all buttonholes are done with buttonhole stitch.
This is a knotted stitch, worked by putting the needle into place and then taking the thread from the eye down around the point before it's pulled through so there is a second loop on the stitch. When this is settled onto the cut edge of the buttonhole it forms a sort-of knot, which makes the edge far more hard wearing. A tailored buttonhole has an extra thread laid aound the buttonhole, from the straight edge around the rounded end and back to the straight end. The stitches are worked over this and then it is pulled to make sure there is no stretch at all in the buttonhole, before being snipped off. In the round end of this buttonhole there would also most likely be a small hole punched before sewing, so the shank of the button had a space to sit in. With proper hand sewn buttonholes, a horizontal buttonhole has a rounded end nearest to the opening, where the button will sit but vertical ones have two square ends to give extra strength and the button sits in the centre of the slit. A slot for a gathering tape such as in a waistband, has two round ends because the tape slides through the slot rather than pulling against it. Blanket stitch is the simpler stitch, where the thread just loops under the tip of the needle on each stitch and is in the same family as fly stitch, chain stitch and feather stitch. Needlelace uses both sorts, but the books refer to them as buttonhole stitch and twisted buttonhole stitch. The basic stitches are blanket stitch and the patterns are achieved by the different spacings. Some needle laces however use buttonhole stitches but because the stitch is being worked in rows not over an edge, the extra loop around the needle forms a twisted bar on the stitch instead of a knot. Holly Point is one of the best known laces using a twisted stitch. Jacquie - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
