One skill most people have had to learn in life is to sew on a button. It’s pretty straight forward and even if you are horrible at it, it is probably still functional. However, sewing on a button seems to be on the dread task list along with hemming and sewing on patches. I’m here today to change your mind about sewing on buttons. It couldn’t be simpler when using your Janome Button Sewing Foot.
Don’t run away! I know so many of you are scared of using this foot. I was there once. What happens if the needle doesn’t go in the hole? What if I break a needle? What if the button starts moving? Put those fear aside and let me walk you through how to use this foot safely and easily. Then we can discuss just how quick this is!
Does your Janome Sewing Machine have a Button Sewing Foot? It may have come with one but if you don’t have one rest assured you can get one! We have one for our 5mm machines (200131007), our 7mm Machines (200136002) and our 9mm machines (859811008). See zero excuses!
First this foot is a beautiful blue textured, rubber sleeve to hold the button securely in place while sewing. That’s right it is grippy so it will stick to the button. If this was metal that plastic button would go flying across the room. The textured rubber is our friend. Plus it looks happy.
This foot has two bars that attach to the foot shank to provide extra stability. That is right, 2 bars, one at the front and one at the back. This allows the foot to press down on your button with consistent pressure across the foot.
Setting up the button to be sewn on requires the feed dogs to be disengaged. If the feed dogs aren’t moving then your fabric and button won’t be moving. We also need to choose a middle zigzag stitch. If you have a machine with the Sewing Application menu sewing a button on is one of the options! Then the machine does all the work for you! Such smart machines!
Now we get to the actual sewing part. I centre my button under the foot so you can see the 2 button holes. I carefully lower the needle into the left hand hole using the hand wheel. Remember always turn it towards you.
As we continue to turn the hand wheel we get to see where the second part of the zigzag will go. We want it to go directly into the middle of the second button hole. This may take some adjusting of your stitch width. Once you have both holes lined up you are good to go!
If you still don’t trust it that’s ok. I didn’t either the first few times I did this. I continued to use the hand wheel to sew on the button. Once you gained confidence you can use your peddle.
Once I started to sew buttons on using my Janome Button Sewing Foot I never went back to hand sewing them again! Recently I made some fun coffee sleeves and I used my Janome Button Foot to sew on the buttons. There are so many tutorials out there for coffee sleeves. I used this tutorial by Positively Splendid https://www.positivelysplendid.com/coffee-sleeve/
Happy Sewing!
Amanda Bee
Janome Life 