Buttonholes and Buttermilk....

I've had such little time to work on my sewing lately, but finally on Sunday afternoon, I was able to at last sit down at my machine. I did have one little boy sitting beside me tracing the revolutions of the needle carriage wheel with his finger, and another little boy underneath the table pushing my foot down on the pedal, but it was still great to get going on my little trusty Singer! I'm still laboriously working on a dress that would be a simple project, if I were able to work on it for more than 20 minutes at a time, but; alas! The life of a mama! This pattern (the one I have pictured in an earlier post atop the vintage black and white check fabric) has a hidden button placket, which is perfect for me; since I have a rather embarrassing secret....I am the worst buttonhole maker in the world! It is silly, I know, for a person who has done as much sewing as I have, to produce such terrible, shaky, crooked buttonholes, and the fact that my machine has a semi-auto buttonhole setting makes it even more embarrassing. I don't know what it is about the thought of making presentable buttonholes that makes me go all to pieces; but there it is! I have also given up on marking dark fabrics with the typical white or silver dressmaking pencil, and so my other embarrassing secret is that I use Crayola colored pencils....not professional, I know, although the markings are either covered or they are fairly easily removed. After my usual trial buttonholes, my first was still fairly shaky, although I was able to cover up the deficiencies by reinforcing it; then just when I was about to succumb to buttonhole despair; I produced a quite presentable, straight buttonhole! I'm so proud of it, I may post a picture! I hope I am able to finish this particular dress in the next few days, since I'm so excited to begin my swimsuit pattern, and I've promised myself I will do all my projects in order, start to finish, for once! You may be wondering where my buttermilk reference comes from; I had a rather strange soap making experience involving adding buttermilk to lye; it changed to the strangest reddish-brown; I had heard of a similar reaction, but never had I seen it before, normally when I use buttermilk for soap it turns a orange-y color, but never this! And when the search box in your google search has the words "buttermilk in lye; reddish brown color", you know it's going to be an interesting day!