Understanding Chicken Snipping: Bound Buttonhole Facings

I have heard that Clotilde used to say to her sewing classes

Don’t Be A Chicken Snipper!

to encourage sewists to cut right up to the stitching when there was a job to do. I think it is a great phrase, very memorable and I do remember it every time I have to cut into a corner when working a bound buttonhole.

Front bound buttonholes are finished and pins have been struck though the ends of the holes to make markings for the front facing. The facing has been flipped over and the end lines and center line marked on the inside of the front facing piece. Once the under collar is stitched on the facing will be folded over the buttonholes and needs to be finished off to frame the buttonhole.

I love good tools and used an accurate measuring ruler from Fashion Sewing Supply to mark 1/8″ above and below the center line. A very sharp pencil comes in handy so I keep a cheapo electric sharpener just for these moments.

I cut 2.5″ wide lining strips and pinned them to the right side of the facing, covering the area that will become the buttonhole facing.

The strips are cut on the bias and the stretch is ironed out. I found this tip in an old tailoring manual and I really like it, much easier to cleanly turn than it is when cut on the grain and all the little ends want to poke through in the corners. The bias helps in the turning through as well.

From the under side of the front facing, the marked side, I could stitch the box for the buttonhole facing. Here’s a big picture so you can see that

1. I started and stopped the stitching in the middle of the long stitching line
2. I did not count my 1mm stitches so I ended up with one extra stitch in a corner!

I hoped that the extra stitch will not be a huge problem and it didn’t turn out to be an error I would find worth of ripping out those tiny stitches

However, here is what a chicken snip might look like.

The water droplets are brought to us courtesy of a new DG5030 Rowenta Pressure Iron and Steamer. It is a replacement for the first one that was worse and the retailer I bought it from can only switch it out for another of the same model. I only have so much patience and money and certainly don’t use it when dry ironing is important! When I called the Rowenta company (my retailer had not even done this yet) they said Oh, we know about that and have come out with a newer model that fixes the problem (steam condensing in the hose)

but back to the Chicken Snips: There is only one corner where the snip goes directly into the corner. The two top ones stop short of the corners and the lower right cut is slightly off and doesn’t go into the corner.

Upon turning the lining material to the back side

you can see how not getting right into each corner and clipping that is slightly angled can result in a poor result

Extra tiny snips into the corners using a (Carson MagniLamp Hands Free Magnifier that I found at Hancocks years ago) magnifying glass helps to correct these tiny errors

and the result is much better

and this buttonhole facing is fixed!

And to keep my blog out of trouble, let me say that I have no association with any of the suppliers that I have mentioned here nor have I reviewed anything that I have received for free. Just sharing the story…

happy sewing!