As much as I love spiral lacing, and many kudos to Festive Attyre for introducing it to the costume world. (Or at least that is where I learned it from.)

But I hate marking eyelets. Something always goes a bit wibbly, and I am not going to pay 20 bucks for the little button hole marker no matter how neat it is.

As of late I’ve been using the back of another costume to mark my eyelets, but things went a bit off on that one too. So it carries over to all the things I mark.

I will suffer this no longer.

What you need:

• 2 narrow bits of cardstock or oaktag the same width (an inch or two is good) and height.
• A ruler
• A nice sharp pencil or fine tip pen
• An awl, compass point, or something you can poke small holes with

Step 1: Take two strips of card and draw a line 1/2 an inch from the edge. If you tend to make your eyelets further in from the edge or have boning to put in, make the line the width of the boning plus a little extra.

Pardon the iffy lighting on these, there was a huge thunderstorm going on while I was doing this.

Step 2: Draw a line 1/2 an inch from the top on both card strips.

Step 3: On one strip, go down another 1/2 an inch. Set the second strip aside.

Step 4: Measure down 1 inch from the mark you just made and continue down.

Step 5: Now take your second strip. Starting from your 1/2 inch mark measure down 1 inch and continue down. When you set the strips side by side the marks should be off set by 1/2 an inch.

Notice here mine got offset by a bit more, most likely due to the thick pencil I was using.

Step 6: Double check your marks. I corrected them with a fine tip pen. When you get near the end of your second strip stop. Put the strips side by side again. On your second strip go down 1/2 an inch from your bottom mark and make a line. The bottom lines on both strips need to match or what you are lacing won’t align evenly.

Step: 7: Use an awl or something small a pointy make small holes in the cardstock where your lines cross. You want the hole just big enough that a pencil point will just be able to mark through it. A hole punch is too big and will lead to things getting wibbly again.

Now next time you have a bodice to mark for eyelets rather then fuss with a ruler just align the template along the edge and mark.