Buttonhole tutorial for the Baby Lock Ellure Plus

At the end of May, Sew Mama Sew asked for volunteers to make a tutorial for using the buttonhole attachment on their sewing machine.  I haven’t had my machine for very long, but oh man oh man, do I love my buttonhole foot.  It’s seriously like magic.  So I volunteered, and here I am with my buttonhole tutorial, which I made over the past week or so while taking some breaks from dissertating

Baby Lock Ellure Plus buttonhole foot A

A couple of notes before I start:  This tutorial is for the Baby Lock Ellure Plus sewing machine.  I don’t know enough about the other Baby Lock models to know whether this tutorial is compatible with them.  This is also the first online tutorial that I have written, so I hope it is understandable!  Finally, the manual for this machine is super clear and helpful.  And it’s full of really neat information, so have a look!

After you have chosen your buttons and marked the locations for your buttonholes on the item to be sewn, choose your buttonhole shape.  The Ellure Plus has ten (10!!!!) different shapes and styles to choose from, starting at stitch number 48.  (Just a little note, page 87 of the manual has a nice chart that shows them all, plus pertinent information like why you would choose that shape and the variations that are possible.)

some of the buttonhole stitch options on the Ellure Plus

Now that you’ve chosen the perfect shape button hole, get out your buttonhole foot (foot A).  It lives in its own little custom-shaped slot in the accessory box that attaches to the front of the machine.

buttonhole foot in the accessory box

When you get it out, the button guide plate (or “slider”, which is what I’m going to call it)  is completely closed, and you’ll need to open it to choose the correct size corresponding to your button.  Each “click” of the slider corresponds to 1mm.  For most flat buttons, all you need to do is open the slider, fit the button in, and close it to hold the button.  The biggest button I could fit was just over 1″ in diameter.  The manual gives a conversion for other types of buttons that aren’t held by the slider:  (button diameter) + (button thickness) = size on button hole slider.

insert button into foot

Once you have your buttonhole foot all set up with the right size, remove the current foot on your machine by lifting the presser foot, then using your finger to press the little black lever on the back of the presser foot shank.  The foot will just fall right off!

remove current foot by pressing black lever

Now you can attach the buttonhole foot.  Remember, the end with the slider and button goes in the back!  The process is exactly the reverse of removing the foot previously.  Position the foot under the presser foot shank (you may have to give a little extra boost with the presser foot lifting lever), and drop the presser foot right onto the metal bar in the top of the foot.  (Pressing the little black lever might help get the foot on a little more easily).

buttonhole lever and the bit that sticks up on the foot

The next step is to lower the grey buttonhole lever.  This lives tucked up to the left of the presser foot shank, and you want to gently pull it down and position it behind the bit that sticks up on the buttonhole foot.  (Technically, this bit that sticks up is called the bracket).

lowering the buttonhole lever

Now, I tend to forget this step a lot.  But never fear!  The Baby Lock warning system is here!  First, you’ll note that the START/STOP stitching button is red, which means you can’t make the machine sew.

start/stop button is red

And if you try, you get some beeps and a friendly little message that reminds you what you’ve done wrong.

helpful little error message

So, lower the grey lever, and we’re almost there! Position your fabric under the foot so that the mark on the fabric for the end of your buttonhole is centered between the red marks on the foot.

line up your mark with the red lines on the foot

Now remember– the buttonhole will be sewn AWAY from you.  That is, if this is a buttonhole for a shirt placket, you’ll want to position the fabric so that the edge of the placket is closest to you, and the rest of the shirt is beyond the buttonhole foot away from you.

Start stitching the buttonhole:  the machine will stitch across the bottom of the hole, then stitch a line of stitches up the left side and back down, then go over them with a satin stitch.  At the top of the hole, it will cross to the right side, and stitch down, stitch across the bottom end of the hole several times, and go back up the right side with a satin stitch.  Finally, it will stitch several times across the top of the hole and stitch 3 reinforcement stitches to end.
I like to be a little show-offy sometimes and take out the foot pedal cord– this allows you to press the start/stop button and the machine just takes it from there!  It will stop on its own when it has finished stitching the buttonhole.  Otherwise, just hold the foot pedal down until the machine sews 3 reinforcement stitches at the end, and then lift the presser foot and cut your threads.

the final result!

As long as you leave your button in the foot (i.e., the slider in the same position), the machine will sew exactly the same buttonhole stitching as many times as you need it.

See, what did I tell you?  Like magic!

In order to slit open the buttonhole, insert your seam ripper at one end and slide it along to the other end.  As an extra precaution so that you don’t cut through the end of the buttonhole, put in a pin across the far end, perpendicular to the buttonhole.  It will stop the seam ripper if you slip!

A few parting remarks:

1.  Don’t forget to raise the buttonhole lever (the grey piece) when you remove your buttonhole foot to replace it for “regular” stitching.  But again, if you forget, the machine will give you a beepy reminder.

2.  Different fabric textures and weights will behave differently with the buttonhole stitching.  Use interfacing.  Consult the manual for the best shape buttonhole to use with different fabrics.  Always make test buttonholes on scraps before you make them on the garment!!

3.  Once you have found how easy it is to make buttonholes, you will want to make them on everything!  Consider using them any time you need a hole or a slit. I even used the one of the tiniest settings to reinforce the slits for the elastic in this adorable baby shoe pattern.  Have fun!