The Buttonhole Compensation Plate, a Helpful Accessory for Sewing Perfect Buttonholes

BERNINA Ambassador Linda  Chang Teufel of Dragon Threads shares one of her favorite BERNINA Accessories, the buttonhole compensation plate.

Lately I’ve been having trouble making buttonholes when the BERNINA buttonhole foot with slide #3A cannot lay flat. When the buttonhole foot rests on the center front seam, or any seam, that is a bit higher than the base where I want the hole, then it jams up and won’t finish the rest of the buttonhole.

On this little baby dress made out of a quilting cotton, the seam at the tab is four layers of fabric as compared to the two layers where I want to put the hole.

Even though this is a very slight height difference because the fabric is not bulky, I still had a thread jam at the end of the first zig zag side of the buttonhole. I tried putting the seam at the back of the buttonhole foot and then tried with the seam at the front of the buttonhole foot but it still wouldn’t work. I was surprised that it was so difficult since the height difference is so slight.

So, after ripping out the buttonhole attempts, I called my Angel, Debbie Lashbrook, Educator and Trainer at BERNINA (all BERNINA Ambassadors do have an assigned angel we can turn to for product and project related questions). She had the solution and told me about the Fabric Feeding Aid accessory BERNINA has. It arrived in a few days. I took it out of the box and it looked so simple, just two pieces of metal that go under the buttonhole foot and an instruction sheet.

I’ll tell you, after reading the easy instructions, I was skeptical. It looked odd but I snapped it onto my foot and got some scrap fabric to test it. I made a very thick seam to test it and it worked perfectly giving me a nice buttonhole. So, I tried it with the seam at the other end of the foot and it made a perfect buttonhole again!

Here is how I used it on my finished dress and somehow magically, it worked! I shouldn’t have doubted Swiss technology and it won’t happen again! I am just wondering why more sewers don’t know about this little tool that is a big help for tricky buttonhole placements! If you are having any difficulties with making buttonholes, just try BERNINA’s compensation plate. This is why I love BERNINA…because they have all the feet and tools to make any kind of sewing not only easier, but also giving perfect results!