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[BajaSusana]

My old Vintage Singers produce the very best buttonholes, using a buttonhole attachment.  Consistently good buttonholes,  on every fabric that  I've made them on.

Jessie

I have had an array of Elnas and Janomes. I now have a Janome Horizon 7700. It would make 6 perfect test buttonholes and then make a holy mess on my garment.
 I purchased a  vintage Singer 301 A with a buttonhole attachment. It makes perfect buttonholes every time on everything.
 I recently had my Janome timed and tuned, and it is performing better than ever and it just cooperated fully and made  some perfect buttonholes. The Singer needs a cleaning and timing.
 I only paid $165 US for this machine on eBay. It is the peuce color. the black Singers are either beaters or  rehabilitated and carry a hefty price tag.

I can see my mother shaking her finger at me saying " I told you never to sell that sewing machine."
 

[Tamnymore]

Oh dear,  buttonholes are a pain no matter how well one's machine behaves in other ways. Having had a machine with a one step buttonhole for a few years now I would not be keen to go back to a 4 step buttonhole. My new Singer machine seems to do a slightly better job than my older Janome but it does seem to be something to do with getting the fabric as flat, taut and ridge free as possible - which isn't always possible of course. I had my first proper foray into bound buttonholes recently and had to cut a new pattern piece after the misleading instructions in the Vogue pattern. The results are fine but they are time consuming.

No real suggestions, I'm afraid but you are not alone in buttonhole frustration!

[arrow]

For me buttonholes always involve a bit of test sewing and adjusting, but I can confirm the old buttonholer attachments have worked fine when the one-step auto buttonholer has acted up. I don't mind a 4 step too much, as long as it's pretty forward and I get the hang of it. The problem is usually when there's folds, ends, seams, or something like that, two or three layers of fabric in places. Wool and coat fabric can be a challenge for some machines. The advantage with the mechanical buttonholer attachments is they grip the fabric differently, holds it in place and handles it rather firmly. Built in buttonholer functions use the swing arm zigzag that can be adjusted for a perfect satin stitch, but for some reason it's not always easy to adjust for a buttonhole. Some machines depend onthese long large buttonholer feet, others have the function completely controlled by the software in the machine. 

[Roger]

I'm another fan of the Griest buttonholer, keyhole and straight buttonholers dead easy to use just run it round twice.

They usually sell for £20 or less far cheaper than a new machine

[sewingj]

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