Secondly – button placement on Ladies’ blouses.
I place one buttonhole at the top where it will close the collar around the neck. This one is horizontal. I place one buttonhole at the widest part of the bust (I am very ample in this area), which seems to prevent gaping of the blouse. I then place the other buttonholes in a way that is pleasing to the eye. I actually lay out the buttons on the fabric to see the effect clearly.

I do mark the buttonholes, make them and then mark the button placement by marking through the buttonholes. It is a fantastic way to make sure the buttons line up where they are supposed to.

I have a couple of questions: for those of us who preshrink our fabrics (I would be one), does the “wash the garment first” still apply? The patterns I make are sized to fit on fabric that’s been prewashed for, hopefully, maximum shrinkage, so that the garment won’t shrink (I lack the ability to figure out how to size a garment for shrinkage after it’s made).

Second, is there a magic for figuring out how far apart and how many buttons there should be, or is it the designer’s preference? I usually figure a half-inch down from the finished edge of the top of the garment for the first buttonhole, and It Depends for the bottom buttonhole, then split the distance between the buttonholes in order to space them evenly (and marked the button placement after the buttonholes were made). If there’s a better way, I’d be happy to learn that, especially since I use the same method for spacing grommets (yes, I have figured out that I can use the Buttonhole Template Method for a Grommet Template, so that’s very useful, too).

And Josh: a number of books suggest steaming fabrics that won’t be washed in order to pre-shrink them (wools, certain interfacings, etc.) Steaming is often used to shape garment pieces, too, by controlled shrinkage (one of the principles of tailoring).

Now I learn that there is a way to make buttonhole templates. I will have to try this.