Tutorial - How to use Eyelets in your bags

Eyelets are a great for adding lacing decorative ribbons, lacing, or fabric ties onto your bags. And you can use eyelets to attach metal rings, or make professional looking drawstring closures.  For example, Lisa has decorated one of her bags with eyelets and lacing, yum!  Eyelet kits provide everything you need including instructions for use, but I thought it might be handy for some of you if made this photo tutorial to show you how easy peasy they are to use.

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Here's what you get inside an eyelet kit from left to right: hammer plate, hammer post, eyelet shaft, eyelet plate.  What you'll also need is a hammer.

1.   Make a hole for the eyelet - Make up your bag, and mark the desired position of the eyelet/s.  Now make a small hole for the eyelet shaft, in your bag.  Make the hole only just large enough for the er...shaft  (heh!) to pass through; it should be a tight fit or the eyelet won't be able to grip onto the fabric, and it will all go tragically wrong.

Take your time to cut a small hole and test to see if the eyelet shaft will fit thru the hole.

2.  Apply eyelet shaft to bag - take eyelet shaft and push it thru the right side of your bag.

This is the shaft part of the eyelet shaft poking thru the wrong side of my bag (in this case, my bag lining).

This is a pic of the right side of my bag: get some heavy cloth to protect the table, and place the hammer plate just underneath the eyelet shaft.

3.   Apply eyelet plate and get your hammer out - slip the eyelet plate over the eyelet shaft and trim any stray bits of fabric if necessary.

Pic is of wrong side of my bag:  slip eyelet plate over the eyelet shaft, ensure the eyelet plate is right side up as shown in pic.

Next place the hammer post onto the eyelet shaft as shown.  The hammer post is shaped in such a way as to make the eyelet shaft roll back on itself (thus creating a lip which will hold both of the eyelet halves to together) when you tap it with a hammer.

Get your hammer out and whack the hammer post with several sharp taps (rather than a couple of hard thumps which might split the eyelet shaft), and hey presto a professional looking eyelet!

Finished result : right side.

Finished result: wrong side.

I'll show you what my bag with eyelets looks like in my next post...::UPDATE:: Here it is.

Comments

[Ali]

Lisa, you have such uncanny timing. I just got one of these little kits to make eyelets in christmas stars. Now I know how to use it!

[Anina]

You make it look so easy. I'm a little intimidated because I'm always afraid I'll ruin all my hard work, but you've inspired me to try this. Thanks!

[Tina Poulsen]

Wow are you a mindreader?? ;) I thought about how to do that TODAY!! ;)
Thanks!

[Lisa]

Wow! Yours look really great! I think I hit mine too hard and they come out looking ratty. Will try the sharp taps next time.

[Sarah]

Thank you for this tutorial, ive been wondering how to get this right!

[Myam]

HAHAHA! excellent tutorial, but i couldnt read past the first instruction without laughing. don't worry, i understood everything. you're so full of information!

[Deb]

Thanks for the tutorial. I bought one of these kits about a month ago and tried it on a wristlet. I think I made the hole the wrong size because I was hammering the eyelet over a concrete floor (as suggested on the package) and it still didn't work. I was disgusted with it and moved on. Now, I think I have to try again with your tutorial. Probably using sharp taps would also help. How many layers are you cutting into, may I ask?

[Laura Bucci]

Thanks for this. I'm hoping I can use with my handmade felt -- it's quite thick, so I don't if it will work for felt.

[Joanna]

two of my favourite words in sewing are shaft and gussett does that make me immature???

[Felicia]

Great tutorial! Thanks for sharing :)

[Regina Philange]

My husband got me a Crop-A-Dile for Christmas. I think most people who buy it use it for scrapbooking, but it does fabric and whatnot, too. I just use it for fabric since I'm not scrapbooky whatsoever. It's a tool that punches the hole and then sets the eyelet or snap for you kind of stapler-meets-hole-punch style. I tried it out and it worked great-- now I am going to eyelet everything I can get my hands on! Guys don't mind eyelets on their jean pockets or wallets as long as they're blue or black or something right? mooah-ha-ha! (that was my evil laugh of eyelet-punching frenzy...)

[drusilla]

Thanks for this tutorial, it's just what I needed!