29 in the clockwise direction thereby pivoting lever 42 in the counter clockwise direction the cutting anvil 25 is moved into cooperative relation with the knife 26 to cut a buttonhole having a desired configuration in the cloth upon completion of the cutting of the buttonhole the solenoid valve 37 is de energized so that the air in the air cylinder 32 is discharged through the air discharge pipe 36 as a result the shaft 33 is moved in the direction of the arrow b under the influence of a spring not shown in cylinder 32 and the cutting anvil 25 is returned its original position the stroke of the anvil 25 can be controlled by changing the period of excitation of the solenoid valve 37 thus depending upon the thickness of the piece of cloth the stroke can be set to the most suitable length furthermore the operating speed of the cutting anvil 25 can be controlled by the adjusting valves 46a and 48a of the speed controllers 46 and 48 therefore the cloth cutting can be carried out at any desired speed in addition the operating pressure of the cutting anvil 25 can be controlled by turning the adjusting valve 40a of the pressure control 40 therefore depending on the thickness of the piece of cloth being subjected to the buttonhole cutting operation the cloth cutting pressure can.