How to Make a Buttonhole

Making buttonholes doesn’t have to be difficult. In this video, Corrina Ferguson demonstrates how to create different types of buttonholes and shows samples of the holes worked both in garter stitch and Stockinette stitch. Choose the one that works best for you!

EYELET HOLES

The simplest way to create a buttonole is to make an eyelet in the knitted fabric. This is done by working a yarn over, followed by a k2tog (knit two stitches together). This makes a very small hole, perfect for tiny buttons.

BIND OFF/CAST ON HOLES

A much larger buttonhole is made when binding off on one row, and then casting the stitches back on to the needle on the next row. Corrina uses a traditional bind off to eliminate the stitches for the buttonhole, and then uses a cable cast on when adding the stitches back onto the needle. She chooses this cast on because it’s sturdy and won’t stretch out too much when putting a button through the opening. This particular buttonhole is larger because the bind off and cast on are worked on different rows, which give the hole a more squared-off edge, making it larger.

ONE-ROW BUTTONHOLE

This buttonhole is Corrina’s preferred method because it makes a smaller, but very sturdy hole for the buttons. The bind off is worked by slipping stitches and binding them off, instead of a traditional bind off where the stitches are knit before the bind off. To finish the buttonhole, Corrina uses a backwards loop cast on to add the stitches back onto the needle.