Panic Is Really Just a Challenge

So, I hate buttonholes.  This is probably because on my machine, you need to constantly adjust the stitch length to get the buttonhole even, requiring multiple samples prior to sewing with the risk of still getting it all wrong in the end.  So, needless to say, after putting in so much time fitting my Lady Grey, the last thing I wanted to do was mess it all with wonky buttonholes.  Enter the bound buttonhole.  While this would have to be done pretty much first thing on the garment, I would be able to avoid a temperamental sewing machine and trying to duplicate all the layers (fashion fabric, hair canvas, interlining and lining) that tailoring requires in order to test the buttonhole multiple times.  The catch?  Never done one before, and I'm not the neatest finisher.  But I decided to give it a go with the aid of some scrap fabric and Gertie's excellent tutorial.

Here's my sample attempt.  I didn't feel like changing the thread that was in the machine from putting together my muslin, so I just went with the red.  It went pretty well but for the glaring exception of doing the final stitching on the outside of the garment, resulting in a messy, uneven box of stitching showing on the front of the sample.  However, the button fit throughout beautifully.  I rechecked the tutorial and figured out what I was doing wrong.  Now. I probably should have made another sample, but I didn't want to.  Lazy and wanted something that looked like actual sewing NOW!!!  Here's the finished buttonhole on the actual front piece.  And my pretty, glass button.

Please forgive the cat hair.  It's par for the course when you've got a cat sitting on your project as you're taking the picture.

And here she is doing her quality inspection of the uneven basting of the hair canvas to the side front.

I had to redo this multiple times.  I'm working with a really smooth fabric, and it seemed that no matter how few threads I picked up when basting down the hair canvas, I had puckering on the right side of the fabric.  By the end, I only picked up a single thread on each stitch, and my basting stitches are seriously close together because of it.  This is the point where I gave up and decided that it had to be good enough because there was still puckering on the front, and I couldn't pick up fewer threads.  There's just nothing less than one.

I later found out the trick was to iron the pieces after the basting was completed.  Completely cleared up the problem.  So, now I'm ready to attach the hair canvas to the front piece and shape the collar.  However, I first have to get another yard of hair canvas because I didn't get quite enough the first time and get 3/8-inch twill tape.  I should have followed my gut and got the twill tape in every width the store had, but no.  I actually thought about it and chose logically and couldn't have been more wrong.  I'm sure I'll find a use for my two yards of 1-inch twill tape sometime in the future.  I don't anticipate this taking particularly long now that I've figured out the secret to getting rid of the puckering.