You may be familiar with ABC’s hidden camera feature “What Would You Do?” where the host sets up scenarios and tests the reactions of unsuspecting onlookers to see just how they respond.

We’re posing some similar scenarios that could happen in your sewing room and asking you to think about how you might respond. We all come from different sewing training backgrounds, so your response can depend on how you learned to sew and who taught you—with all due respect to moms and home economics teachers!

#1 Mismatched Stripes

You’ve just serged the side seam in your new T-shirt and noticed that some of the stripes don’t match as the fabric seems to have shifted as you sewed the seam. The stripes are narrow, but the question is “What would you do?”. Perhaps it doesn’t bother you and you say “life will go on”, or you decide not to take claim to having actually made the garment, as the ready-to-wear industry often doesn’t care about such details. Or, maybe you carefully take out the serging, adjust the seamline, repin and try your serged seaming again.

#2 Misaligned Quilt Blocks

Perhaps it’s your first attempt at piecing a quilt and you’ve dutifully pressed the seams in opposite directions so they nest and align, but somehow they don’t—they’re just a teensy bit off of a perfect match, despite your careful pinning and using a walking foot. What would you do? Does your decision depend on who the final recipient of the quilt is, or does that matter to you? Is it in your psyche that alignment should be perfect or do you say “aw well, I tried”?

#3 Oops…

While careful cutting can help prevent this sort of thing, sometimes we aren’t paying full attention, or thinking the project all the way through to realize the turn-back situation, or maybe you ran out of fabric for the proposed layout. If your garment is made from a directional print, and it has a collar and/or attached lapel facings, you need to think about the print direction on the finished garment as you’re wearing it, before you cut. If you cut a collar or front facing “upside down”, what will you do? The answer depends in part on if you have additional fabric to recut, or maybe even if you have long hair to cover up the snafu, or the prayer you offer up that no one will notice. The answer could also depend on how far along you are in the construction process when you notice the issue.

We’ve all faced similar issues in our sewing rooms, and had conversations with ourselves about the best resolution to a less-than-desirable dilemma, and wrestled with the question, “Is close enough good enough?”.

As American Sewing Guild members, we may even have larger conversations with multiple opinions offered.

If it’s been drilled into you from the time you learned to sew that everything has to be perfectly done, then you’ll likely strive for that in all the previous scenarios. If that wasn’t the case, then you may opt for other solutions, including doing nothing at all. Neither option is right or wrong—it simply depends on your comfort level.

I have a quote on my bulletin board that says, “Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection can be demoralizing.” You may or may not subscribe to that mantra, but the one thing we all agree about is that we sew for fun, and if it ceases to be fun, then perhaps we need to rethink it.

~Linda Griepentrog is the owner of G Wiz Creative Services and she does writing, editing and designing for companies in the sewing, crafting and quilting industries. In addition, she escorts fabric shopping tours to Hong Kong. She lives at the Oregon Coast with her husband Keith, and three dogs, Yohnuh, Abby, and Lizzie. Contact her at .

You may be well versed in garment-making techniques, but maybe not so much for things like bag making. While some techniques can cross over, others are specific to bags and totes. Let’s explore a few of those.

Structure is key to bag making. You need to create a firmness not found in any garment, as the project has to support not only its own weight, but the weight of the contents as well, all without buckling or sagging.

Inner support is key. Firm interfacings, battings, fleeces and foams are ideal candidates to create the inner structure. Your bag pattern will likely make recommendations pertinent to the style, so be sure to read those before selecting the innards. All of these structural materials come in both fusible and sew-in varieties, depending on the fabric you’re using, and a bit of testing will help you determine the right option to get the feel and stability you need. Note that some bag materials like vinyls, some faux leathers and furs cannot be used with fusible products.

Whatever you use for the inner support, it’s a good idea to keep it out of the bag seams, so trim the outer edges either before fusing, or after basting in place. Trimming reduces bulk and makes smoother seams. Topstitching bag seams can help to keep them flat and crisp.

Choose the appropriate hardware for the bag design. There are hundreds of types of hardware items available for bag making, in a variety of colors and finishes. Eyelets and grommets are a popular choice. They can be used alone, or in combination with snap hooks, drawstrings, laces, etc.

Most bags have some type of closure for security—either a zipper, drawstring, buckle, slip lock or magnetic snap. A single bag can have more than one closing mechanism for added safety.

Chances are if you’re making a tailored bag, you’ll need hooks of some sort to hold a strap on. If you make detachable straps, you can get myriad looks for a single bag. Just look for snap hooks in a style and size compatible with your bag. Making detachable straps is your chance to embellish to your heart’s desire using appliqués, decorative stitching, trims or embroidery stitches.

Those straps can attach to the bag with D-rings or rectangular rings.

The company that designed your bag pattern may offer hardware kits like this kit from Amazon by Sallie Tomato (affiliate link), so you’re sure to have everything you need to complete the project, from hooks and D-rings to buckle sliders.

Super Stitching

Handbags and totes are a great place to showcase some of the decorative stitches in your machine that you might not use on a garment. A flap or strap can be embellished with a single stitch, or multiple rows of different stitches. Just be sure to stabilize the area behind your stitching lines before you sew to keep things flat.

Or use a portion of the bag to showcase a favorite embroidery motif.

So, whatever bag pattern you select for your project, be sure to read through the directions before starting it, as there may be some new techniques you’re not familiar with, and for the best results, use the products suggested by the designer.

Unless otherwise noted, all images courtesy of Bernina of America, with permission.

~Linda Griepentrog is the owner of G Wiz Creative Services and she does writing, editing and designing for companies in the sewing, crafting and quilting industries. In addition, she escorts fabric shopping tours to Hong Kong. She lives at the Oregon Coast with her husband Keith, and three dogs, Yohnuh, Abby, and Lizzie. Contact her at .

Getting button and buttonhole placement right is crucial—misplaced buttons can lead to gaping, pulling, or a garment that just doesn’t fit right. While your sewing pattern may suggest how many buttons to use, the final choice is yours, based on fit, style, and functionality. A great starting point? Your body’s pressure points—the areas where your garment may experience the most strain, such as the bust, belly, or hips (especially with button-front dresses or skirts).

Button Placement Tips

• Identify Pressure Points
  Use a muslin or sloper (block) to locate your pressure points. Mark these on the fabric or pattern for future use.
• Decide on the Number of Buttons
  Refer to your pattern as a guide, but feel free to adjust based on your personal style or coverage needs.

Mark Key Positions

• Lay the muslin or pattern flat.
• Mark the center front and the pressure points.
• Place your top and bottom buttons first.

Evenly Space the Buttons

• Measure the distance between the top and bottom buttons.
• Divide that space by the number of buttons minus one (e.g., if you want 5 buttons, divide by 4) to calculate even spacing.

Double-Check Placement

• Make sure one of your buttons falls directly on each pressure point. If not, adjust the spacing slightly to ensure support where needed.

Buttonhole Orientation

With button placement set, choose between vertical or horizontal buttonholes:

• Horizontal Buttonholes
  These are more secure because the button can move slightly side-to-side within the hole. Make sure your facing is wide enough to accommodate the full length of the buttonhole—some patterns don’t allow for this.
• Vertical Buttonholes
  These are typically centered along the center front. They’re good when your button placement is precise, as there’s less wiggle room.

Note: The distance from the center front (CF) to the finished edge is usually 5/8”. This works well for buttons up to 7/8” wide. If you’re using larger buttons, you’ll need to increase this distance accordingly.

Buttonhole Sizing

Many sewing machines have an automatic buttonhole foot or settings to adjust size. If you’re setting it manually, follow this rule of thumb:

• Buttonhole = Button size + 1/8″
  This extra bit allows the button to pass through the hole easily.

Quick Guide:

• 1/2″ button → 5/8″ buttonhole
• 5/8″ button → 3/4″ buttonhole
• 3/4″ button → 7/8″ buttonhole

Best Practices for Beautiful Buttonholes

• Vertical Buttonholes: Align both the button and the hole exactly at center front.
• Horizontal Buttonholes: Place the button on center front but begin the hole 1/8” toward the finished edge.
• Top Button Placement: Start about 5/8” down from the neckline, depending on button size. Never place a buttonhole closer than 1/4” from the edge of the neckline.
• Test First: Always sew a test buttonhole using a fabric sandwich that mimics your final garment—including interfacing.
• Women’s Garments: Buttons go on the left, buttonholes on the right.

Women’s clothing buttons on the left, while men’s button on the right, primarily due to historical reasons. In the past, women were often dressed by servants who were typically right-handed, making it easier for them to button clothing on the left. Men, on the other hand, typically dressed themselves, and the button placement on the right was more convenient for self-dressing. Do you have to follow this rule? Absolutely not! Place your buttons and buttonholes on whichever side is most convenient for you.

Bonus Tip for Jackets

When making jackets—especially with horizontal or bound buttonholes—consider stitching all buttonholes along the fabric edge before cutting the front piece. This gives you room to adjust placements and helps prevent mistakes, particularly with hand-finished bound buttonholes.

More Information

For more information about buttonholes, refer to these articles:

• Buttonhole Basics
• Buttons: Attachment Antics

~ Based on an article by Annalise T.

As home sewers, not many of us get a chance to see sewing in a production setting, but for five years I was in charge of a small sewing “factory”. There are many similarities to our own sewing rooms, but also many differences. Some factory findings can be transferred to our personal sewing efforts to help save time and money.

Before you cut out your project, looks through the pattern pieces and see if you can simplify the design. For example, can you change a sew-on facing to a cut-on one and perhaps even create a self-interfacing? That simple change saves both sewing and likely fusing time, and perhaps fabric as well.

Whether you’re making 10,000 pairs of Levi jeans, or 50 tote bags for a charity project, or a single shirtwaist dress, nothing saves time like chain piecing. If you’re a quilter, you’re probably already familiar with the concept used to create multiple blocks. If not, it simply means that you feed in the next pieces to be sewn continuously without stopping or manually cutting threads. If you have a presser-foot lifter, it’s even easier. Not only a timesaver, but also a thread saver.

This effort means that you won’t be necessarily following the pattern guidesheet, which usually has us making “units”, but instead you’ll be challenging yourself to see how many pieces you can sew together before stopping to press or cut them apart (a built-in thread cutter makes it even easier). For example, when sewing a garment, you could sew both side seams of a skirt, then feed in a sleeve underarm seam, a bodice side seam, the other sleeve seam, the remaining bodice side seam, then a collar and/or facing in a continuous chain. You’re saving time for sure, and lots of thread as you’re not stopping between to pull out new threads before the next seam is sewn. In a factory, there is a specific amount of thread allocated to each item and each step of the production process.

Take note of a huge factory timesaver in choosing where/how to position your cut pieces. The closer you can get the cut pieces to where they’ll be sewn, the less time and motion is involved in the process. In a factory, both of those factors influence cost. An example—place the cut pieces of your project on the bed of your machine instead of on the table next to it. Pieces destined for sewing together should be place right sides together at the machine so you don’t have to fumble with them prior to sewing.

Sew without pins whenever possible. The time it takes to remove pins while seaming adds up and will slow down your continuous sewing. If you feel compelled to pin, place the pins inside or outside of the seamline, so they don’t need to be removed as you sew.

If you have specialty presser feet available for your machine, learn to use them as they will not only make your life easier, but they also save time as they’re designed for the specific task at hand. Bias binders, piping feet, narrow hemmers, folders, etc. are examples of these single-function attachments.

Contrary to our home sewing mantras, most factory work does not include pressing as you go; most likely, if at all, it’s done at the very end of a project. A single final press is the culmination of the sewing process.

If you’re making quantities of a single item, like for a charity or a craft sale, choose a non-directional fabric that doesn’t require matching, and select fabrics that can utilize the same color thread. Both of those things are timesavers.

Whether or not you choose to implement any of these techniques gleaned from production sewing is up to you. Saving bits of time may not be that important to you if you’re savoring the creative sewing process, but if you’re making a hundred of the same item and are bored to tears, time saved is welcome.

~Linda Griepentrog is the owner of G Wiz Creative Services and she does writing, editing and designing for companies in the sewing, crafting and quilting industries. In addition, she escorts fabric shopping tours to Hong Kong. She lives at the Oregon Coast with her husband Keith, and three dogs, Yohnuh, Abby, and Lizzie. Contact her at .