Some more samplers of my grandmother which she made between 1950 and 1952 in her dressmaker’s apprenticeship. Today I have two samplers with buttonholes: one with hand bound buttonholes, the other with hand worked buttonholes.

The first sampler has hand bound buttonholes.

No stitches are visible on the right side.

On the wrong side just some tiny slanting stitches can be seen.

Here are 1921 instructions about how to make bound buttonholes with illustrations.

I don’t know what the stiff yellowish, papery interfacing is: it feels like thick waxed paper or thin cardboard. It might be Pellon (forum discussion, history of Pellon).

The fabric was cut so that the selvage is on the inside and therefore doesn’t need finishing.

For the second sampler she used thick boiled wool.

The buttonholes are again finished with tiny, very closely spaced buttonhole stitches by hand. The buttonhole stitches are stitched so that on the right side just the twisted upper edge of the buttonhole stitches are seen.

Here‘s a tutorial about how to make hand worked buttonholes with a 1942 diagram. And here are 1921 instructions with illustrations about how to make barred buttonholes (for underwear and shirts), round-end buttonholes (for cuff and belt buttonholes with a resting place for the shank of the button) and tailors’ buttonholes (for heavy cloth garments).

There’s a stiff interfacing between the two wool layers: I think it’s haircloth or horse hair canvas.

The cut edge of the boiled wool (at the bottom of the picture) isn’t finished at the back because the fabric doesn’t fray.

Here you’ll find part 4 and part 6 of my 1950s embroidery and sewing techniques series.