Buttonholes and Hubris

Back to the wedding sewing --

The tuxedo ended up being more challenging than the wedding gown.  Go figure. Part of that was my inexperience with tailoring.  To overcome that inexperience, I did a lot of research online.  Unfortunately, that research came back to bite me in a big way when it came to buttonholes.  Prior to my research, I had assumed I would use my sewing machine for the buttonholes on the tux. Seriously, they are buttonholes -- more function than form, right?  However, during my obsessive reading of Jeffrey Diduch's blog Made By Hand, I discovered that buttonholes can actually be works of art.  Once having made that discovery, I knew there was no way I could be happy with the sad, soul-less buttonholes of my past.  

So the great buttonhole adventure began.  I started by ordering the correct supplies (buttonhole twist and hemp).  Then I practiced and I practiced and I practiced.  Somewhere along the way, cursing became an integral part of the practicing.  All the while, the clock was ticking and I was making no progress on the wedding sewing (or pretty much anything else).  Mastering the perfect buttonhole truly consumed me and I was determined that I would do whatever it took to get there.  However, how do you get from this:

to this:

 

I finally came to the conclusion that you don't.  At least not without training, skill and a lot (read years) of practice.  And, in fact it was rather obnoxious of me to think that I could look at at a YouTube video, order supplies online and master this quickly.  Kind of like picking up some paint at Lowe's and playing around with it and then trying to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  

So, I had a Come-to-Jesus meeting with myself and got real about my skill set vs my goals and expectations.  I ended up swallowing my pride, putting in machine buttonholes and then stitching over them with the fancy buttonhole twist to get somewhat special looking buttonholes. 

At the end of the day, the tuxedo looked wonderful on my son and I received lots of compliments on my skills.  What do I see when I look it it? Buttonhole failure.  I am still determined to master this skill -- maybe after I master ballet, piano and Italian.   Or maybe what I should work on mastering is keeping my hubris in check.