Metal eyelets did not appear until the second quarter of the 19th century – before that, eyelets were hand sewn with thread.  Here is a great tutorial on making hand sewn thread eyelets.

However if you are like me, you are always looking for ways to use technology to make this easier and faster.  I discovered this great accessory for my sewing machine that allows me to make thread eyelets.  This product is for Husqvarna Viking but I would be surprised if similar accessories are not available for other sewing machine companies, especially more expensive brands like Babylock, Pfaff, etc.

Husqvarna Viking Eyelet Plate

Here is the eyelet plate installed on my Husqvarna Designer Diamond.  It comes in 4mm and 6 mm sizes – I find the 4mm to be the best size for corset eyelets.  When using the eyelet plate, the feed dogs must be lowered in the machine’s settings.

Eyelet plate installed and ready to go. Note you may need to remove the ankle so that it does not prevent you from being able to turn the fabric.  One of my machines works fine with the ankle on, the other does not.  Go figure.

In a nutshell, you are going to set the machine to a basic zig zag stitch and then rotate the fabric around the eyelet plate as you sew.  The width of the zig zag stitch can vary depending on how thick the fabric is.  I always do a test eyelet on scrap fabric from the project first, but usually the stitch width is between 4 and 4.5mm.

First, mark the placements of your eyelets.  This can be done with a regular ruler, or with an expanding ruler (one of my favorite tools):

Marking eyelet placement with an expanding ruler (it is also great for marking button placement).

For the examples I am using green thread on white fabric to make it easier to see, but in practice you would use thread to match the fabric.

Next, using an awl, work a hole in the fabric for the eyelet, just big enough to fit around the eyelet plate:

Hole made just large enough to fit around the eyelet plate on the machine.

Now begin sewing – slowly!  I usually go around the hole quickly as a first pass, and then go around a second time more slowly to fill in.  But in this example I just began sewing so that it is easier to see how the thread is sewn around the eyelet hole:

Rotate the fabric around the eyelet plate while sewing with a zig zag stitch.

Eyelet has been sewn all the way around.

Here are the front and back appearances of the eyelet:

Eyelet Front

Eyelet Back