Buttonhole stitch and the related blanket stitch are hand-sewing

Sewing

Sewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with a needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic era...

 stitch

Stitch (textile arts)

In the textile arts, a stitch is a single turn or loop of thread or yarn. Stitches are the fundamental elements of sewing, knitting, embroidery, crochet, and needle lace-making, whether by hand or machine...

es used in tailor

Tailor

A tailor is a person who makes, repairs, or alters clothing professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers,...

ing, embroidery

Embroidery

Embroidery is the art or handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, and sequins....

, and needle lace

Needle lace

Needle lace is a type of lace created using a needle and thread to stitch up hundreds of small stitches to form the lace itself....

-making.

Holy Buttons stitches catch a loop of the thread on the surface of the fabric and needle is returned to the back of the fabric at a right angle to the original start of the thread. The finished stitch in some ways resembles a letter "L" depending on the spacing of the stitches. For buttonholes the stitches are tightly packed together and for blanket edges they are more spaced out. The properties of this stitch make it ideal for preventing raveling of woven fabric.

Buttonhole stitches are structurally similar to featherstitch

Featherstitch

Featherstitch or feather stitch and Cretan stitch or faggoting stitch are embroidery techniques made of open, looped stitches worked alternately to the right and left of a central rib...

es.

Applications

In addition to reinforcing buttonhole

Buttonhole

Buttonholes are holes in fabric which allow buttons to pass through, securing one piece of the fabric to another. The raw edges of a buttonhole are usually finished with stitching. This may be done either by hand or by a sewing machine. Some forms of button, such as a Mandarin button, use a loop...

s and preventing cut fabric from raveling, buttonhole stitches are used to make stems in crewel embroidery

Crewel embroidery

Crewel Embroidery, or Crewelwork, is a decorative form of surface embroidery using wool and a variety of different embroidery stitches to follow a design outline applied to the fabric. The technique is at least a thousand years old...

, to make sewn eyelets, to attach applique

Applique

In its broadest sense, an appliqué is a smaller ornament or device applied to another surface. In the context of ceramics, for example, an appliqué is a separate piece of clay added to the primary work, generally for the purpose of decoration...

 to ground fabric, and as couching stitches. Buttonhole stitch scallops, usually raised or padded by rows of straight or chain stitch

Chain stitch

Chain stitch is a sewing and embroidery technique in which a series of looped stitches form a chain-like pattern. Chain stitch is an ancient craft - examples of surviving Chinese chain stitch embroidery worked in silk thread have been dated to the Warring States period...

es, were a popular edging in the 19th century.

Buttonhole stitches are also used in cutwork

Cutwork

Cutwork or cut work is a needlework technique in which portions of a textile are cut away and the resulting "hole" is reinforced and filled with embroidery or needle lace.Cutwork is a related to drawn thread work...

, including Broderie Anglaise

Broderie Anglaise

Broderie Anglaise is a whitework needlework technique incorporating features of embroidery, cutwork and needle lace that arose in England in the 19th century....

, and form the basis for many forms of needlelace.

Variants

Examples of buttonhole or blanket stitches include:

• Blanket stitch
• Buttonhole stitch
• Closed buttonhole stitch, in which the tops of the stitch touch to form triangles
• Crossed buttonhole stitch, in which the tops of the stitch cross
• Detached buttonhole stitch, in which rows of buttonhole stitches are worked to form a "floating" filling stitch
• Buttonhole shading, in which rows of buttonhole stitch are sewn in related colors to give a naturalistic shaded effect
• Buttonhole stitches combined with knots include:
  • Top knotted buttonhole stitch
  • German knotted buttonhole stitch
  • Tailor's buttonhole stitch
  • Armenian edging stitch

Buttonhole bars are parallel rows of thread laid across an open space in lace or cutwork and then completely covered with closely space buttonhole stitches.