The Bernina Button Sew On Foot #18

Once that stitch is selected, your machine will automatically drop the feed dogs.  It’s a stitch  programmed into the machine!

Notice the special black rubber grippers that help stabilize the button underneath the foot and keep it from moving.  The metal bar of the foot is positioned over the ‘bridge’ (that’s what I call it) of the button, in between the two holes.  Did you know that most button holes on buttons (even this big one) are the same distance apart?  Even so, it’s always a good precaution to make sure your needle will pierce the center holes of the button, and you can  pre-test it with your hand wheel.  

Once your alignment is ‘spot-on’ — press on the foot pedal, and the machine does the rest!  It will automatically take three securing stitches to begin, placing them in the left hand side of the buttonhole.  It then switches to the zig zag, going back and forth several times, stitching over that little center bar, and when it’s finished it takes three more securing stitches in the right side, and it stops, automatically!  You then just slide the foot off off your button, and you’re done.  

Yes… it leaves enough ‘give” from the thread to the button, so that it’s not too tightly sewn on.  Just give the button a tug upward, to make all the stitches ‘rally together’ (as I call lit!) 

Note:  If you are sewing a button with four holes, you will want to always begin in the front, and then slide the foot back to stitch the back two holes last.   Easy Peasy!