Eyelets

I have to stitch 36 eyelets onto the bands of my bikini bottoms, nine on each side.  Whew!  I decided to do buttonhole-style eyelets, using, of course, the buttonhole stitch. :)  As you can see above, my first eyelet turned out a little bit wonky.  Ah well.

Here is the back of eyelet #1.

For those of you who have never sewn eyelets, or are just curious, here is a little step-by-step!

 Step 1: Mark and cut/poke/pierce holes.  

I marked mine with chalk and snipped the holes with some embroidery scissors.  You'll want to make the holes just a tad bit smaller than you actually want them to be, as the thread will pull the hole wider as it is tightened.

Step 2: Stitch around the entire circumference using a simple overcast-type stitch.  

This adds strength, acts as a guide for your buttonhole stitches, and makes sure that your fabric isn't raveling as you work.

Step 3: Work around the circumference again, this time using the buttonhole stitch.

I love the buttonhole stitch. :)

Step 4: Finish off.

Pull thread to backside and take your needle through several threads.  Next put your needle through one layer of fabric, starting as close as you can to the stitches and ending 1/2"-1" away.  Snip the excess floss right at the fabric. 

Ta-Da!

As you can see, my second eyelet turned out much nicer than my first.  But then one of the joys of hand-finishing is the human-ness of it--everything is not exactly the same.  Instead of being little cookie-cutter eyelets, my eyelets will have...character.  Or something like that. ;)

Four down...just thirty-two more to go!  

Bessie