regular, keyhole and bound buttonhole
For a few weeks now there has been a discussion on Pattern Review about Greist and Singer buttonhole attachments, and I’ve had a Singer for a long time. I never used it because it never dawned on me to see if it fits a vintage Singer Touch n’ Sew 648 that I have stashed under my cutting table. Well – it fits! And it makes a better buttonhole than my fancy Bernina. Here it is set up on the Touch ’n Sew. 
This machine is perfect as a dedicated buttonhole machine because its small, 14 inches wide and the footprint is only 18 inches wide. I can leave it set up permanently with the buttonholer attached. The only downside is that 648 bobbins hold just 20 yards of thread, however the bobbin winds in the machine too, which is very handy. I may go to IKEA and get small table so I can leave it set up next to my industrial full time. Singer made thousands of these little machines and they are easy to find on Ebay and Craigslist. SewUSA sells Touch n’ Sew manuals and their web site has instructions for winding a bobbin and a thread diagram, which is also inside the cover plate in the head. This is a simple all mechanical machine and after a few test runs I was cranking out great buttonholes easily.
The buttonholer attachment is also widely available on the web. It appears that Greist and Singer sold them from roughly the 1940′s to the 1970′s. So if you’ve been thinking about setting up a buttonhole station here are the basics:
- Make sure you find the attachment that fits your machine; the buttonholer came in vertical shank and slant shank versions.
- Make sure you use the right throat plate. The buttonhole attachment has its own feed dogs and the plate covers the feed dogs in the machine. There are three different types of throat plate (scroll down to see them) . If you have a newer machine that can drop the feed dogs you don’t need to worry about the throat plate. A Singer Touch n’ Sew 648 requires the throat plate on the left in the link above; there are no screw holes because a 648 has an “elevator” feature that raises throat plate with a lever and the buttonole plate slips under the indentations on either side.
- For both the Greist and Singer attachment buttonholes are sized and stitched with small cams. The buttonhole cams drop into the top of the attachment. There are 20 cams in a complete Singer set, a complete set of Greist cams seems to be about 13 to 15 based on what people were saying on PR. Greist cams are pot metal, Singer cams are pot metal or plastic depending on the age of the attachment.
Buttonhole attachments of either brand seem to run $10 – $25 depending on how complete they are (cams, manual etc), and Touch n’ Sew machines can be had for short money too; maybe $50. All in all this is a great machine + attachment combination if you’re seeking better buttonholes.
Beautiful buttonholes! I like the one that is just an outline. I find that is wonderful as a basis for handmade buttonholes.
I just bought one yesterday and I can’t wait for it to come. I have an older Viking that I will try to use and do as you’ve done and set it up as a buttonhole only machine. I will need to find a small table for it too. I am sick and tired of playing with my Viking to get it to make button holes that are all alike, which is what I bought it for!
Welcome to the wonderful world of the Singer Professional! I’ll never make buttonholes on my Bernina again.
I love these buttonholes! My mom had a set for her 1950′s era White. I must pull out the set I bought in an antiques store several years ago for sewing room decor. These gizmos make the best buttonholes ever!!!
Cool!
I am excited about getting mine..it’s coming by way of a fab friend in Florida
It is going to be attached to my Singer 503 “Rocketeer” machine!
I now have my Mother’s old basic Singer that my sisters and I all learned on (I’m the youngest at 40) to give to my daughter. My Mom however, refused to part with the buttonholer nor the ruffler attachements that she has. She uses those on a newer old Singer … so I am now shopping for one for us! I have an Ikea table laready all I have to do is rearrange the shop to fit it and away we go!
I recently purchased a Singer buttonholer from the 40s that has a few differences from the ones you’ve shown. Mine came with only 5 templates (so I promptly bought another that came with 9 since it was only $11) and the templates have to be placed in the bottom. That top loading feature sounds wonderful, mine can be a bit of a hassle when I’m testing out buttonholes and have to detach the whole thing to change out sizes. I love my little buttonholer!
I have my mom’s old Singer 403 in it’s cabinet and the buttonhole attachment permanently set up in the guest room as a buttonhole station. When guests come I drop the machine into the cabinet and put a pretty doily and flowers on top. It makes much better buttonholes than my fancy Bernina. I smiled to see others feel the same – took some of the edge off my frustration with Bernina.
Lois K
You know those old Singers were terrific machines….the ones before they started cutting corners. They lasted forever and they were real work-horses. I sold my old one and I shouldn’t have. It was the last machine I sold or gave away as I have all the others and still use them. Seeing this, which I had that old one to try these templates.
This is the reason I requested and got my mother’s old Singer 66. These buttonholes are the best! Better than either my Viking or my Bernina can produce.
I just tried this, and OMG aren’t they amazing!! They, are, gorgeous! Wow, thanks for the heads up. I missed the thread on PR.
Thank you so much for posting about this – I didn’t know I needed one until I saw it, but we’ve been getting acquainted this weekend and like you and all the other converts, I’m not sure how I made buttonholes without it.
I just picked up a Singer 403 on Craigslist with a professional buttonholer for $50.00. Glad to see its getting rave reviews
I can’t wait to set it up and try it out!
Thanks to reading your blog I took the plunge and got a Singer TNS 625 that came with a monogrammer (I may just try using it!) and a wonderful buttonholer that has the larger sizes of the keyhole cams. It came today (finally! Because of the holidays, my having it delivered to work instead of home, and a few inches of ice and snow it took Fedex 4 freakin’ attempts to get it to me!) and I couldn’t wait to try it. I thought I had bought a lemon at first but thanks to some persistent googling I was able to get the bare basics of how to wind the bobbin and get the thing threaded. Oh and the keyhole buttonholes are wooooonderful! I can’t wait to spend a few hours with the proper needles and threads and play with the different ways to make them. My butter suede trench has been patiently hanging, sans buttonholes, until the TNS could come to my rescue. I have a Bernina 1230 that I bought back in the 80s that I want to be buried (cremated) with but Bernie has never given me the buttonholes I want. So, like you, I will find a place in my ever so crowded sewing room to leave the newbie set up as a dedicated buttonholer- woohooo! I even tried out one of the bound buttonhole cams- I can see their merit as giving me identical outlines for each buttonhole. Cool beans. I have seen these “old-timey” buttonholers for ages in junk shops, etc., and always turned up my nose at them until I began reading about them online. Your blog was the cincher for me to try it for myself Thanks ever so!!! You rock! Oh, and does anyone know if there is a model that will work on a Bernina? I have a buttonholer for my Singer 15-90 but I couldn’t get it to work with Bernie. And since this one is a slant foot it wouldn’t even come close.
June
I have one! but no manual…anyone wish to give me a run down on proper way to use it? Or where to download a manual???
Nothing like the old Singers…I have 2 401a’s and a 625 and a 20 year old computerized 2110…the 401a is the best!
Val in Newfoundland
I have that same buttonholer on my 403 have you ever had any problems with it not making a zig zag stitch? Mine was working fine and then all of a sudden it stop zig zaging although it goes around through the template and makes this weird straight stitch thing but no zag zag
Sewiknitoo – have you tried to adjust the zig zag stitch on the machine? It sounds like the height of the zig zag is too short.
Do you know if the Kenmore buttonholer of the same era is similar and will take the same plastic cams? Can you buy extra cams?
Helen, I can answer only part of your question. You can buy extra cams, but probably only second-hand. I purchased a set for my vintage buttonholer because it had only 6 sizes, and I wanted more sizes. The originals are pot metal, and the extras are plastic. I’m guessing you can find sets on ebay or similar sites. Don’t know anything about a Kenmore buttonholer, but I would guess that the Singer attachment would fit a Kenmore machine as long as they were the same type (i.e. slant needle or vertical needle). HTH.
Yes, I agree extra cams are out there, although you may need to buy the whole attachment. There are a *lot* of these buttonholers available; they were manufactured for a long time, almost 40 years. I think Griest was the original maker and it would not surprise me if your Kenmore is just a private-labeled Griest.
Please send me the cost of buttonhole attachment, also the cost to ship in St Lucia in the Caribbean