The "Famous" Buttonhole Worker

I saw one of these and had to get it.  What a contraption.  I use Singer's buttonholer a lot and am familiar with the concept of how those work.  How about this one?  What is different about it?  Does it do a good job?  Is it easy to use?  My search for information came up with nothing.  That means I better figure it out myself and post some information for others who may also have one of these.  Now that I've had it for a while it's time to shed some light on it.

This type of buttonhole maker has been around for a long time, since 1895.  They were marketed by several companies ending with Greist and Singer through the 1950's.  That's when buttonholers with templates came into popular use.  They are still made today for industrial machines by YS Star.   There are still lots of vintage ones out in circulation.  I can see why.  They are a heavy and sturdy accessory.  Nothing dainty about it.

How does it work?
The buttonholer fits over the needle clamp and onto the presser bar.  The one I have is for a low shank sewing machine and is shown on a Singer 201, a flat bed.  There are adjustment screws on the sides for setting the width of the hole opening and the stitch width.   An adjustment screw on the back sets the stitch length and another single screws sets the stitch density.  Like other buttonholers the fabric is moved to make the button hole.   Clickety clack clickety clack!

Making the Buttonholer Work:
1.  Remove Presser foot.  Place the cover plate on the sewing machine bed.  Make sure the needle goes into the small hole strait on.

Cover plate placement.

2. Place the buttonholer hook on the needle clamp at the same time setting it against the presser bar.

Turn wing thumb screw towards you.

3.  Turn the side wing nut towards you, until it gets to the front and left.  That's the beginning of the buttonhole.  ( It will form the buttonhole backwards from there.)

Needle placement

 4.  Stitch as normal, I go kind of fast and keep the fabric taut.

Making Adjustments:
This model is adjusted by screws.
Set the Length of hole.
 To set the length of the buttonhole move the screw at the back.  I have found that it's easier to do this by marking your fabric sample and holding it up to the opening.  Loosen screw and move it down or up to correspond to the marks.  The measurement should include the screw itself.  The buttonhole length will equal the opening (from the top) including the diameter of the screw open space you see.  The maximum is 3/4.  Larger lengths are done in two parts, well described in it's manual so I'll leave it out from here.

 Setting the Cutting Space Width.  The cutting space opening can be adjusted by loosening the screw and moving it.  The "W" is for wider and "N" is for narrow.   Experiment with this with the type of fabric you have. 

Adjusting the cutting space.  It's set for cotton broadcloth now.

Setting the Stitch Width:
The stitch with or "bite" is adjusted much the same as the previous step.  The change is that to make it bigger or wider, move the screw towards " W" for wide and towards "N" to narrow.

Setting the Stitch Density:
The density of the stitches can be adjusted by turning the screw on the side up or down.  This is a very subtle adjustment so turn it down or up a little at a time.  The way it is the photo is perfect for cottons.

Stitch density screw.

The buttonholer requires a lot of adjusting to get it right.  You can't just plop in a cam and have it go.  This makes testing very important.   Here is an example of a few changes that come from changing the stitch width and bite. 

Just as with the Singer buttonholers, I suggest making a sample to keep with your attachment to refer to.   As you can see there is a big difference between widths.    The lengths shown are all the same.The most narrow bite is too small in my opinion.  It snarls every time.

Does it work well?
This is not very easy to use.  I have to be honest, it is more complicated than a template style one.    The wing thumb screw can be hard to turn.  That said it has one feature that is REALLY helpful.  That is the ability to change the cutting space.  There are few things more frustrating that making a buttonhole and having the hole be too small to cut and so threads are shredded.  It can ruin your work, at the final step.  That horror can be avoided with this buttonholer.   For all the time spent in testing, it IS good to be able to adjust for variations in fabric density or type.

Button hole samples

The quality is OK but is improved with a bit of tear away stabilizer underneath.   It works very well with heavier fabrics but has not been tested extensively on silks.   My biggest complaint is that it is hard to make a hole larger than 3/4".  It can be done but not easily - or at least easy for me.  I do think this buttonholer has a  place in your tool box and if you see one, think about getting it.

The one key feature it has is a good one, and that is the ability to customize.  There is a certain inspiring quality as well, to see it in action.  The ingenuity of people is amazing sometimes.  The Famous Buttonholer is is a good example of that!