Just for the record, I hate binding eyelets. I mean, I used to say I hated it when I meant, "I've never actually done that but it seems awfully intimidating". Now I do it, and lately, I've been doing it fairly regularly, and it's tedious and annoying and all that. But.... It's looks a sight better than big metal rings in your costume, which is why I keep doing it. And, if you screw up and put an eyelet in the wrong place, you can remove it since no threads are actually cut in the process of putting an eyelet in. The same is not true for the big metal grommets. If you're looking for information on how to properly space eyelets for spiral lacing, this isn't the right place. For that, you'll want jen's excellent article on The Zen of Spiral Lacing. If you already know all that and you're just trying to figure out how to get the fabric out of the places that are supposed to be holes, you're in the right spot.
The first step to making a proper bound eyelet is to poke a hole. You should use some poking implement that will allow you to make a whole by teasing the threads of the fabric aside. Awls work well. I have several. I can never find them when I need them, and so I've discovered that my silly little 3$ walmart stork scissors do the job amazingly well too. Now that I've found use for them, I expect that they will disappear as well. I've found that it is faster to make all the holes, then go back and bind them all. I use a really period way of pacing eyelets -- I measure them against the top half of my thumb. Sometimes they're a touch closer or farther (I think my thumb grows), but it doesn't really see to matter so much. |
The next thing to do is secure your thread. I use a doubled strand to sew almost everything, with the strands knotted together at the end. To start and secure the thread, I take one stitch down through the fabric about 4 threads from the edge of the hole, pass the needle back up through the hole, and slip the needle between the strands before the knot, then pull the thread taut from the needle. Instant magic starting knot..... |
I do eyelets in two passes - once around the whole with large stitches to make sure that the hole stays a hole the entire time I'm working with it (they close up sometimes, and there's nothing worse than having your hole become a whole instead of an eyelet (ha, ha, yeah, ok), and once around the hole with tight stitches to make sure it is completely bound. The first pas usually has about 7 stitches, whipped around the edge of the hole. Each stitch goes in about 4 threads from the edge of the hole, then comes back up through the hole. Your goal is to catch the threads that have been pushed aside to form the hole. When done, you have an eyelet that is not quite ripe yet. |
The end of the first pass puts your more or less right back where you started sewing (circles are funny that way). Note you start the second pass - you'll take stitches the same way as before, but much closer together so that the edge of the hole is fully bound with thread. This is show, half completed, to give you some idea of the difference in stitch sizes between pass the first and pass the second. |
Yay! One done! Repeat, ad nauseam. (That's the part I hate! ) |
