Sewing Buttons can be Fun with the Janome M7!

I’m a quilter and I don’t do clothing repairs, but…I don’t mind sewing buttons on garments or other items because it’s so fun to do with the Janome M7.

I’ve got to admit that I find it fascinating and almost magical how easy it is to sew a button on clothing with the Janome M7.

I recently had to sew buttons on a shirt for my son and I wasn’t looking forward to this time-consuming task (I had to sew all the buttons on the front of the shirt) until I remembered that the Janome M7 could do it for me. Sewing the buttons on by machine was so quick and accurate. I’m not sure if the best part was how fast I could sew all the buttons on with the Janome M7 or how neat they looked on the back of the fabric – much nicer than when I sew on buttons by hand.

Maybe the best part is that everything you need to sew on buttons is included when you buy the Janome M7. The zigzag or regular needle plate and the T foot are what you’ll need to use when doing this task.

There is also a button shank plate that you can use if you want to create or have a shank already on your button. I didn’t need this piece but it’s nice to know that if I need to sew on these types of buttons, that accessory is there for me.

To get ready to sew on the buttons, I installed the zigzag needle plate. This is so easy to do with the Janome M7 and it’s another useful but also fun setting on the machine. Just a couple of touches on the display screen and the needle plate lifts up and I can change it out quickly.

Next, I put on the T foot. This is a little foot that is easily recognizable due to its blue colour. After I’ve done these two things, the Janome M7 is all set up for some button sewing.

There’s a special Button menu on the Janome M7 (could it get any easier?!). You can find it by pressing on the t-shirt icon on the main display screen and then scrolling through until you see the choice labelled as “Button” on the second page.

Once I was in the Button menu, I set the width of the zigzag stitch so that the stitches will fit in the holes in the button. Once that was done, I was able to stitch each button with the same settings as the spacing between the holes was the same on each button.

To see the entire process, including how to set up the stitch width when sewing on a button, click here. I tried out a new idea to keep the button in place when stitching it on that I think you’ll find helpful – I certainly did!