SAL: Looking at buttonhole stitch

Today I want to focus on a small discussion that one of our stitch along participants and I have had over the last week.

SJ had said that she was making good progress on her stitch along embroidery, but she wasn’t happy with her buttonhole stitch. Without being able to see her buttonholing, there was one big thing I could suggest: try stitching in the opposite direction.

You may have noticed what a difference this has made to my buttonhole stitching during this stitch along. When I was working on the petals of the main flower, I tried stitching one direction first, which I wasn’t happy with, and then tried the other direction, which looked much better.

And as it turns out, I’m working the buttonhole stitch around the edge of my cushion is in the opposite direction to what I used on the petals. But this time it looks ok!

So, what do I mean by stitching in the opposite direction? I have observed over many years of teaching, that many people work their buttonhole differently. (And this is not just explained by the question of left or right-handed.) Some work with their stitching going from left to right, and others with it right to left. Some work with their needle inserted towards them, some with it going away from them. Some work with their stitching travelling up to down, others down to up. Some have their needle inserted right to left, and others have it left to right.

With the right process of stitching, all of these can produce buttonhole stitch, but the look of the stitch may differ, because of thread twist.

Let’s look at an example:
Here’s my buttonhole stitching around the edge of my cushion. I am working with my needle going in at the left and coming out at the right. My stitching travels upwards.
To stitch in the opposite direction, I could keep my needle going in left and coming out right, but having my stitching travelling downwards (shown above).
Alternatively, I could keep my stitching going upwards, but have my needle going in at the right and out at the left (shown above). This would also mean that I am stitching in the opposite direction to what I first suggested.

If you prefer having your needle coming towards or away from you (rather than left to right or right to left) turn the work 90 degrees.
These two produce the same result as each other.
These two produce the same result as each other.

Because I am using S twist thread, my method described earlier and shown in the photo produces a buttonhole stitch where the rolled edge melts into the other stitching a little.

Going the opposite direction produces stitching where the rolled edge is very pronounced (shown left). Each of these are buttonhole stitch, but just with a different effect because of stitching direction and thread twist.

If you’re not understanding this, please get out your needle and thread and try it. You MAY find stitching in the opposite direction than what you are used to, to be a little difficult. It may seem a little backwards! But please try it, and see how it affects the look of the stitch.

Back to SJ’s buttonhole stitch. The next day she triumphantly commented to say that changing her stitch direction had made an enormous difference, and where before she had been struggling with keeping her stitches close together, the change of direction had fixed all that. Wonderful result!