Many featherwieghts have buttonholers but they were not originally issued with the machine. Buttonholers were sold as an extra attachment and will fit on many short shank machines. The ancient old Buttonholer that came with my featherweight will even fit on my Janome 6500 and still makes perfect buttonholes everytime. There are also other attachments that will fit your featherweight and were sold separately. I have a zigzagger that attaches in the same manner as my buttonholer. These attachments were popular with featherweight owners as a featherweights would just straight stitch and many original owners were using their machines to make clothes for their family.