Possible to CLOSE a button hole?

Nobody wrote: ....

Hey, I just did something similar to a pari of shorts last week. Buttonhole was too large for button.

Found some grosgrain ribbon that matched very closely. Cut a piece the length of the buttonhole plus some, clear nail polished the cut edges. Once dry, I stitched it in place on the wrong side.

Not for my purposes, I cut a new buttonhole in it, but seems like you could just leave it.

Most won't notice. Them wot do aren't caring about your sewing technique.

HTH

--Karen D.

[snipped: description of unwanted buttonhole near hem of shirt]

There are three ways I might deal with this. One, just cut off the button and ignore the hole -- it isn't going to show *much*.

Two, as above, but also overcast the hole closed from the wrong side.

Three -- cover the hole with a patch cut from the discarded tail. This

*is* going to show, but might show less than the buttonhole . You should save the discarded tail in case the thread of the buttonhole ceases to match the shirt after it's washed. To look at all inconspicuous, the patch must be sewn on by hand, and this is going to cost you.

Another thought: I shortened some stretched-out bike jerseys by sewing a tuck around the chest. Which looks pretty dorky, but when I'm passing at 10 mph, who's going to notice? If the buttonhole really, really bugs you, you could cut the tail off just above the buttonhole, trim the buttonhole off the tail, then sew the tail back on. Which leaves a conspicuous seam around the shirt, so I wouldn't do that unless I could somehow make it look like a design feature. Such a problem in a skirt can be dealt with by setting in a contrasting band, but you wouldn't want to do that with a shirt unless you had some fabric left from something that you always wear with that particular shirt.

A seam can also be hidden inside a tuck, but again, that works better on skirts than on shirts.

Next time, have your tailor make you a shirt from new fabric. By the time you've paid for the RTW shirt and all those alterations, you must be pretty close to the price of a custom shirt.

Joy Beeson

This morning I saw a dress with a horizontal seam just above the full of the bust, with very sharply contrasting colors above and below. It worked because there was a sine-curve of the lower color above the seam, and a mirror-image curve of the upper color below the seam, peaks touching to make a unified design.

But I don't think anything could save this design if it were worn over a 40 F bra!

Joy Beeson

I think you are right. AA maybe...

I'd judge the wearer to be about B, and she looked gorgeous in it.

Come to think of it, a yoke that wide would end a lot farther above an F bust. Which reminds me of the Barney Google & Snuffy Smith funny strip: all the women have the bust indicated by scallops at the waistline.

Wish't I knew what sort of headdress Loweezy's black coif was modeled after. I suspect that the artist who draws it doesn't know, and I couldn't find any old strips that might have been a bit closer to the original. It *might* have originally been a three-cornered scarf laid over the head, with the points wrapped once around the neck and tied in front. This is still good under a helmet.

Joy Beeson