Sewing Quick Tip: Grommets Tutorial

Rob Appell from Mansewing.com offers you another great quick tip based completely on grommets. You can do SO MUCH with grommets in many different colors and they come in a variety of shapes (round, square, oval, etc).

Hey everybody, welcome back to Man Sewing. This is Rob and I’ve got a super quick, quick tip for you today. That’s right. I want to show you how to install these super cool plastic grommets. And grommets can be used for all kinds of things. We’re finding them in purses and aprons and pillows and decorations and shower curtains and by the time I give you the list, I could have shown you how to do this.

So, we’re going to be working with the 1 9/16. That’s just over 1 ½ inches. But, they also come kind of smaller, like this, right? And they have a one inch version and they literally come round, oval, square, that I’ve seen, as well as I’ve also seen a huge variety of color.

Within each package, they usually come about eight to a pack. They also give you a template and the template is a little piece of mylar plastic and do hang on to it. Don’t let it get damaged. And it’s got some grooves cut out in it and in those grooves, I’m just taking my chalk pencil and I’m making a mark that will be my cut line.

So, once that mark is made, like that, I’m literally going to use my small 18 millimeter rotary cutter and I like to use this for cutting small, intricate shapes, and I’m just going to walk around here, this way, and then when I get about halfway around, I’m going to grab my fabric and start rotating it. This circle is going to actually be covered up in the grommet opening, so it doesn’t have to be perfect, but you do not want it to get too large or the fabric will slip out of the inside of the grommet.

Now, the grommets come in two fashions, I guess. Boy and girl, maybe? There’s a lip edge here, the little thicker side, and that thicker side is going to slide in under our fabric, just like that, and that part comes up through and then, if this would be the girl side, it’s nice and flat and smooth and lovely. How’s that sound, right? So, once you’ve got that, you’re going to go ahead and take that piece and you’re just going to put a little bit of downward pressure and ouila! It’s a snap, literally. They’re locked into place and you now have an awesome set of grommets in this piece of fabric.

Actually, I forgot to tell you, but I’ve folded the fabric over so you can see how it goes with two pieces there. And if you ever did need to release the grommet, you might want to line this up. When you’re doing some of your work, there’s a little place where you can pop a flat-head screwdriver in there and release it if the grommet didn’t hold just right. So, that’s what I know about grommets and I know I love that you’re watching along with our quick tips here at Man Sewing.