Friday, October 19, 2012

How to put in Grommets/Eyelets into Fabric


Grommets or eyelets are often used as either decoration or as a well to tie things together.  It could be something fancy like a corset or something simple like a curtain.  I was talking to someone and they were unsure how to put one in, so I decided to do a blog on it.  It is really simple to put a grommet or eyelet into fabric. I extracted out this out of my Rapunzel dress posting.

Tools needed:
  • Hammer
  • Seam Ripper
  • Air Soluble Pen/Chalk
  • Eyelets
  • Eyelet tool
  • Hard surface (and something to protect it if using table)




 1) Determine where the Eyelet needs to go.  I took my pattern and put it on my ironing board w/o the cover on.  I used a ball point pen to poke holes in the center of all of the circles on the pattern to indicate where the eyelets need to go.







2) Transfer all of the marking by putting either a chalk mark or an air soluble pen  by lining up the pattern onto the front of the bodice and draw the mark onto the garment.








3) Use a seam ripper to carefully make a small tear through all of the layers that is just big enough to put the eyelet in.  If your not sure enough how big to make the slits, line up the center markings on the side of the ring part.  Use chalk or an air soluble marker to trace the inside of the ring.  Make sure that your cuts are small than the ring.
 I recommend making the slit vertical (neckline to waist) to prevent the fabric from running.  If it's a larger grommet make an "X" pattern so that it's easier to get through.  Since this is a 1/4" grommet only one direction was done.
If you want you could apply fray check to the fabric before you put the eyelet through the bodice to make sure that the fabric won't run/fray or get bigger.  This is esp important if you are using a fabric that is known to run like this satin that I was using.
4) Put eyelet through the hole that you just made.  Make sure that you put the side that has the high side through the fabric, not the ring.

5) Put eyelet tool onto a hard surface.  I used my kitchen table, with a magazine under neath it so that I wouldn't dent my table.

6) Put the ring onto the eyelet and place the long part of the eyelet tool onto the eyelet.











 7) Hit the long part of the eyelet tool with a hammer until the tube part of the eyelet has folded over onto the ring.
8) Repeat as needed.  When you are done you will get something that looks like this.  I was using a satin, so mine puckered a little because I did not make the slits large enough on some of the holes.  I just left it b/c it would be stretched out a bit.  Cottons will not pull like the Satin did.  Just the nature of the beast.







And that is all it took....to put in grommets or eyelets into fabric

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