Machine Knitters Guild of San Diego

 September 5 & 12,  2026  Workshop

Diana will be focusing on Buttonholes & Zippers for this workshop.  

Session 1:  The class will include four buttonhole options, two for ribbed bands and two for hemmed bands. This gives you good buttonhole techniques for practically any machine! Diana will go into planning your button band, your buttonhole size, and spacing your buttons.  Next, she’ll demonstrate the actual techniques on the ribber. After that, she’ll show how to make great-looking hemmed bands, both horizontal and vertical. Diana has a unique method for grafting these hemmed band buttonholes that looks really terrific!

Session 2:  Many hand and machine knitting patterns have a zipper finish, but do not explain how to do it. This is nothing like putting in a zipper in a sewn garment! The knit stretches, the zipper doesn’t, and the result can be a wavy mess unless you have strategies to stabilize the knitted fabric edge, secure it precisely where you want it on the zipper tape, and then sew it exactly along a straight, attractive line. Our class will have detailed instructions for both a covered zipper and an exposed coil zipper. While you can sew your zipper in by hand, and Diana will describe how to do that, she prefers to use a sewing machine for a sturdy installation. Diana also will show how to make a pretty, soft inner facing so that when your jacket is open and the inside shows, it looks great.

To prevent zoom fatigue and give folks a chance to try out the techniques, we decided to limit each day to 3 hours with a later 1 hour follow up.  We hope that by splitting up the workshop over two weekends will give you plenty of time to practice her techniques.