Buttonhole lever The buttonhole lever doesn't seem to be sensing the "end" of the buttonhole. The machine just keeps sewing the left side of the buttonhole without reversing to sew the other side. The lever even pushes on the buttonhole foot sliding it back farther. Can I fix this problem?

You can perform all the steps of a buttonhole without the buttonhole option (ask how sewists used to do it before sewing machines offered the buttonhole option). You'll just need a machine that can zig-zag.

How to sew buttonhole with an old machine

Making Buttonholes Without Special Feet

There are a lot of web sites and tutorial videos available.

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normally with the a sewing machine won't do a buttonhole stitch, unless the buttonhole lever is pulled down,, but if your buttonhole lever is down, then there could be something wrong with a gear or cam inside of the machine.

Measure the button, mark the size of hole you want with a pin at each end. sew 6 full width very close zigzag stitches at one end ending on left side , then sew down to the other end with needle in left position with #2 width stitches, at other end again sew 6 full width zigzag stitches finishing on right side, turn work right around and sew back to other end again with #2 width stitches.
you should now have a rectangle of very close stitches with a very narrow gap between them down the middle. carefully cut between the stitches and you have a button hole.

the machine probably needs to be serviced to see why it's not making
a buttonhole and see if the gear or cam for the zig zag stitch is
worn or damaged.

your machine may have a button hole lever that has to be pulled
down before sewing, it should be on the left hand side of the needle
if that doesn't help then the machine may need to be checked

Definitely a problem to be adjusted by a qualified Babylock technician

if you have a automatic buttonhole , then you should have a buttonhole lever that you have to pull down, before you start to do the buttonhole,, my machine will not let me do a buttonhole unless I pull down the buttonhole lever

Have you made sure the buttonhole lever is in the buttonhole tab?

This tutorial will show you how to make a zig-zag buttonhole - http://www.ehow.com/video_4433258_making-hole-using-zigzag-stitch.html

The demo is a little sloppy. I stitch into the ends and I set the stitch length to zero when making the bar tacks across the ends. It takes a little practice.

I hope this helps.

set you machine for "zigzag" then: try your buttonholer again.
Also; the thread tension can be adjusted by a small screw in the side of the bobbin for the bottom loop of the stich or, the tensioner on the side of the machine head for the top loop

I've been looking too and I found here http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/sewingclasses/board.pl?t=18328that you need to put the bar behind the needle threader down. I think they call it a button hole stop? I don't know, but it worked. I didn't even know it existed. But it solved my problem. On my Kenmore it looks like a black lever and you pull it down. It tells the button-holer that you are at the end of the hole and it needs to backup. nifty, kind of.