Grommets

Setting the grommets in the fabric

MrIcy's shed to the rescue.

What are grommets?

Grommets are the metal eyelets that the corset lacing passes through at the back. They prevent the fabric from ripping under the tension of the lacing.  You'll see them often in the corners of tarpaulins - corset ones ar the same, just smaller.

The smallest grommets are #00 and are about 4mm on the internal diametre.  I'm using #0 size, which are bout 6mm internal diametre.  You can find them in gold and silver coloured metals usually, though I'm using ones coated in black paint (as I had some left over from a previous job).

Making holes

You absolutely do no want to use any sort of hole punch on fabric. If you physically cut a hole, you'll be cutting all those threads and introducing multiple points of weakness into your corset. 

The correct way to make the holes is to break as few threads as possible.  You do this by pushing something sharp through the fabric and gradually widen it.  The best/safest way to do this is with a tailor's awl; mine is about as sharp as a cross-stitch needle. It's not wide enough, however, so it was off to MrIcy's well-stocked shed to find his awl.

Of course this was in the middle of the #SydneyStorm and it was BUCKETING DOWN. So I scurried over to the shed and found what I was looking for. One unwisely large step later (over a puddle) and I was on my ass with my thumbnail bend back, a massive bruise on my knee and a nasty bruise on my other thumb joint, as well as a few strains that made themselves known later in the day. This stymied grommet insertion for an hour or so while I nursed my injuries with a couple of ice-packs.

MrIcy's awl (blue handle) worked a treat to force the holes bigger, though invariably there were broken threads; the coutil is just too tightly woven to avoid it.  Even then, the holes weren't big enough. Next step was to widen them again using a Japanese chopstick (the Japanese ones come to a point).

Inserting grommets

After the holes are the actual grommets. The outer section is a little disk with a thin metal shaft which is pushed through the hole. Then I squeezed a little fray-stop around each hole. Fray-stop is a thin, flexible glue that soaks into the fibres and hopefully keeps them from fraying any further.  Then a washer is dropped over the shaft so it sits onto the fabric and then the whole thing is slammed in a mold, which forces the shaft to split and then curl over the washer, holding the whole thing in place.

The first side went a treat as I used up the rest of a pack of grommets I've had hanging around for more than 10 years. MrIcy's huge rubber mallet did the trick nicely.  I opened a new packet (same brand, same size) for the second side, only to realise the base metal was silver coloured, not gold.  Now this shouldn't have mattered, as the visible side on both sets was coated in black enamel paint, but it turns out that the shaft on the newer grommets was slightly longer and they just didn't compress down as well.

So, it was back to MrIcy's shed to pull out his portable vice* and that worked a treat for tightening up each of the grommets. It worked so well that next time I'll just skip the mallet and go with the vice in the first place.

Tips

Use a vice to tighten your grommets if you have one.
Put your chopping board (or similar) on a carpet/rug on the floor to muffle the sound somewhat.
Don't take large steps over puddles in the rain while carrying a sharp awl.

Time/Cost

About 5 hours to do all the holes and setting.
Grommets $3/pack 30. Tailor's awl $5.

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* Yes, he has such a thing.

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