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Member since 5/28/06
Posts: 1449
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Posted on: 11/14/08 6:40 PM ET
Now with all the super-duper sewing machines we have on the market, why are they not selling one specifically for making perfect and beautiful buttonholes?

Yeah, just a home sewing machine whose sole purpose is to make perfect and beautiful buttonholes every. single. darn. time.

I'm happy that my Platinum sewed PBB this afternoon. But I was certainly miffed when I had to, just had to unthread the machine, rethread it with a different thread for my buttonholes, and then rethread it back again to my regular sewing thread. Nothing like juggling threads through the thread path to ruin the moment.

This dream (for it certainly is still in the dream phase) buttonhole-sewing machine for the household sewist should make the whole process--yes, even the spacing and the marking--of sewing buttonholes easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy.

And just to give those engineers a challenge, why not throw in the capability to sew on buttons as well?
  
Member since 3/4/07
Posts: 510
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Posted on: 11/14/08 7:03 PM ET
In reply to poplin
Hmmm, my janome and janome made kenmore do great b~holes.....no rethreading at all....i would never put up with that!

Then theres my old singer buttonholer.......
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Member since 9/18/03
Posts: 425
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Re: You would think theyd make it by now . . . (posted on 11/14/08 7:53 PM ET)
Of all the stand alone machines this is one I'd buy! My machine has a buttonhole setting, but it makes pretty horrible buttons, so I use an old Griest buttonholer. It looks like a crazy robotic beetle but it does a pretty good job.
  
Member since 12/28/04
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Posted on: 11/14/08 8:01 PM ET
In reply to poplin
Haven't you noticed that the big thing out there is embroidery machines and after that machines for quilters? We garment sewers get overlooked when it comes to top of the line features much less a machine just for us!
-- Edited on 11/14/08 8:02 PM --
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Member since 6/18/08
Posts: 2609
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Re: You would think theyd make it by now . . . (posted on 11/14/08 8:36 PM ET)
My Elna (made by Janome) does great buttonholes -- in fact I bought it for that reason. The Greist buttonholer also makes pretty buttonholes.

If the width of your buttonholes can be adjusted and made thinner, then you are in business for sewing shirts, blouses and dresses. The keyhole buttonhole on domestic machines is fine for pants and jackets -- but decidedly different than those made commercially, which appear to be cut first and then stitched with a chain stitch.

I think a household buttonhole machine is a very good idea -- if it is priced less than $200, and if it does professionally finished commercial grade keyhole buttonholes.
  
Member since 2/17/07
Posts: 2506
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Re: You would think theyd make it by now . . . (posted on 11/14/08 9:11 PM ET)
Maybe a used industrial buttonholer?
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A sewing machine is just a welder for textiles.
  
Member since 10/1/06
Posts: 4518
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Re: You would think theyd make it by now . . . (posted on 11/14/08 9:19 PM ET)
you betcha I would buy one
  
Member since 6/18/08
Posts: 2609
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Re: You would think theyd make it by now . . . (posted on 11/14/08 9:31 PM ET)
Like one of these?

http://www.chholderby.com/IndSew/Buttonhole%20Machine.htm

U got room for one of these? I don't. And I don't want a machine that requires a technician to come out to my house when it needs a repair or tune-up. New industrial buttonhollers run between $3,000 and $5,000. I figure I'll make, at most, 150 more keyhole buttonholes in my lifetime. That's something between $20.00 and $35.00 a buttonhole!

However, a nicely priced home model is something that would most certainly be welcome.
  
Member since 5/28/06
Posts: 1449
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Re: You would think theyd make it by now . . . (posted on 11/14/08 11:11 PM ET)
I was trying to make it easier on myself and my budget. I don't want to fiddle with the industrial machines: they're too heavy on strength and on my wallet. Too much for this home-sewing geek.

I'm sure there's an even geekier genuis out there in the home sewing engineering department who has yet to discover that her destiny is to invent this buttonhole-only-sewing-machine just for us home sewists who sew our garments for personal pleasure and not for business.
-- Edited on 11/14/08 11:15 PM --
-- Edited on 11/14/08 11:34 PM --
  
Member since 6/18/03
Posts: 2145
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Re: You would think theyd make it by now . . . (posted on 11/15/08 2:08 AM ET)
I would so be in the market for one of those! I don't need a hundred different embroidery stitches or any of those other things that apparently sell the higher end machines ... I just need a handful of nice, dependable buttonholes! My next machine will probably be an old workhorse (fingers crossed for a rocketteer!) and while I know you can get attachments (which, of course, I want - what's the fun of an old machine if you can't get all it's accessories!) I'd rather just be able to push a couple buttons and have that be that.

Please sewing machine design gurus, hear our pleas!
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Kit
"Never underestimate the power of the right dress!" - drsue
"Hyu gots to know how to sveet tok de costumers, dollink" - Girl Genius, 11-24-08
  
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