Pogonip wrote:

An older Pfaff is a hard machine to beat. My favorite in the buttonhole
department was the older Singers that you just dropped the button into
the foot, and it made a buttonhole to fit, but I wouldn't recommend
those particular machines for general sewing. If you have room, though,
you could have a "dedicated" buttonhole machine. I've used the very old
Singer buttonhole attachment, which uses cams to select the desired
buttonhole and has several different "styles" - regular slot, slot with
a rounded end, bound, and gotten excellent results. My Pfaff 1475 is
notorious for poor buttonholes. Other than that, it's a great machine.

For $1,000, you may find yourself looking at good used machines as the
new ones tend to run multiples of that price.

I love the buttonholes my old Singer 301A makes with the buttonhole
attachment. I always find it worth switching machines to use it for the
buttonholes and often switch to it for straight stitching too.

--Betsy