Watch for sales on the patterns. You can find them discounted by 25% - 50% in stores and on Vogue's website a few times a year.

I love the buttonholes on the new, fancy machines. Buttonholes always make me nervous because they're one of the last things that I do on a garment and there is so much room for error. Some of the new machines with embroidery attachments allow the user to place the garment in an embroidery hoop on the machine and the machine will stitch multiple, perfectly sized and spaced buttonholes without the sewer ever having to move the garment.