Hello, blogworld!  I am back after an unintended month-long-plus hiatus from writing. No, I am not sick or anything horrifying like that; some things just got in the way of regular weekly posts. Now I’m glad to be back!!

So, taking over from the point where I stopped writing, here’s something fun. I call it the NOWEK kind of sewing. It’s an acronym for “No One Will Ever Know”; yep, I coined the silly term.  I think shortcuts while sewing good clothes are totally justified when they are not noticeable.   Disclaimer: Please do not use these shortcuts if  you’re sewing professionally for clients.

Faking a buttonhole on the collar band:  Normally, making buttonholes in a shirt or almost any garment is the very last step. All well and good, until you come to the buttonhole on the collar-band, where the collar ends meet.

However, if you don’t ever button up that top button, is it really worth fussing over making one?  In my experience making a buttonhole in that particular spot on the finished band doesn’t always give good results. With the bulk of the seams and a narrow space for a buttonhole, the resulting buttonhole can be uneven.  Lets work around that undesirable scenario.

How does one “fake” a buttonhole?  Here’s my way:  after the cutting out process, interface the two pieces of a collar band (inner and outer band), mark the buttonhole placement on both pieces mirroring each other.

Then sew the buttonhole on each collar-band piece; but do not cut it open.

Proceed with the shirt collar per pattern instructions, and then the entire shirt.

You can merrily sew on real buttonholes in the rest of the front band, without stressing out.

What if you like the buttoned-all-the-way-up look but don’t relish sewing one in the collar-band? You can pin a pretty brooch to cover the fake buttonhole and keep the collar closed.

What are your thoughts on this NOWEK trick?

Samina