Help with Button Holes?

[DaisyAlly]

Okay Im sure this has been asked before but Ive searched and couldnt find anything so if Im just missing it, please let me know! I cant be the only one who doesnt know how to do button holes.  Maybe someone knows of a good website that can show me? I cant find anything useful. And naturally, I seem to have lost the manual to my sewing machine, so can any of you oh-so-talented people tell me if any of these are a button foot? Or what the heck that long metal thing is? (Yes its that bad, I have NO idea what Im doing!) And the fabric in the picture is what I need to put the button holes in, just for reference. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you guys!

[punka]

Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTjjV4jkBjo

[DaisyAlly]

Ah-HAH! Thank you! I didnt know what she was doing when she said switch to the next step but I watched another video that showed me. I never knew what those things were for! lol Thank you again and Im off to try it out!

[DaisyAlly]

Well, I now know how to make pretty presentable button holes. The problem now is that my fabric is too thick on the coat I am trying to make. I can stuff and cram it all under the foot but the needle doesnt progress, it just goes up and down in the same place. Any ideas what to do about it?  Stupid coat.

[SpottedFrog]

I'm assuming theres at least 3 layers of fabric you are trying to sew through. Open it up (turn inside out) and see if you can trim away any excess fabric** from where the button holes need to be Make a good wide swath all around each one to accomodate the machine, say an 1 1/2 inch by 2 inch rectangle. If you truly only have the outer & inner pieces and they are that thick I cannot think of how to thin it any more :/

** I don't mean cutting the facing piece! I mean anything between the front and the facing, extra seam allowance in particular, maybe extra layers of dunno what.