I haven’t a clue how common Singer Adjustable Buttonhole Scissors are, but it took me a fair old while to track down a nice pair for Elsie.  Here’s the front and the back of the box …

The scissors themselves are really well thought-out, and they’re made of very good steel so they keep their edge well.  They’re a doddle to use – you set them to the length of cut required in your buttonhole by means of the adjusting screw, and take a test cut in a scrap bit of material to check the length.  There’s a cut-length scale engraved on one of the blades, but as far as we’re concerned that’s more of a guide than an accurate setting.  In the next picture, they’re set to half an inch.

Having set them to the right length, all you do then is line them up in your buttonhole and cut.  Carefully …

In this picture, Elsie’s just about to start the cut.  Hopefully you can see that the cut starts at the “heel” of the blades, and that when the blades have closed by the right amount to give the required length of cut, the adjusting screw will stop them closing any further.

We like ’em.  They really do make buttonholes less fraught …