Buttonhole

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For another meaning, see boutonniere

Buttonholes are paired with functional buttons (as opposed to decorative buttons) in their function of fasteners. Alternately, a decorative loop of cloth or rope may replace the buttonhole. Buttonholes may be either made by hand sewing or automated by a sewing machine.

Buttonholes often have a bar at either end. This is a row of perpendicular hand or machine stitching to reinforce the ends of a buttonhole.

Types of buttonholes are:

• A plain buttonhole, by far the most common type. In plain buttonholes, the raw (cut) edges of the fabric are finished with thread in very closely spaced stitches (if made by hand, often the buttonhole stitch). When stitched by hand, a slit is made in the fabric first and the result is called a worked buttonhole.

Sewing machines offer various levels of automation to creating plain buttonholes.

• A machine-made buttonhole is usually sewn with two parallel rows of machine sewing in a narrow zig-zag stitch, with the ends finished in a broader zig-zag stitch. (One of the first automatic buttonhole machines was invented by Henry Alonzo House in 1862.)

When made by machine, the slit between the sides of the buttonhole is opened after the stiching is completed.

• A bound buttonhole, which has its raw edges encased by pieces of fabric or trim instead of stitches.

• A keyhole buttonhole is a special case of a thread-finished buttonhole that is normally machine-made due to the difficulty of achieving it by hand working. It is characterized by a round hole at the end of the slit to accommodate the button's shank without distorting the fabric.

Keyhole buttonholes are most often found on tailored coats and jackets.