Grommets: The Boxwood Hoodie

The boxwood hoodie is one of those projects that required one of these specialty tools that I talked about in the beginning, and that was a grommet plier or a grommet insertion tool. Something that allows you to put in the grommets that allows you to put the draw string around the hood of your sweater. And inserting grommets without the plier tool is very, very hard to do. So I wanna show you how to use the plier tool. So if you have maybe used it in the past and it's been a long time this would be a good refresher. Or maybe you've just purchased it and it's straight outta the box. It's gonna look something like this. And you're gonna wonder how it works and the first thing you need to do is to remove, there's a little bar and that's holding the pliers together and it just makes it easier to store them. But just squeeze the handles together a little bit and pull this bar right off. And now your pliers will actually open all of the way and allow you to use them. So when you are looking at the tools required to use your grommet pliers you have a couple things. The first are two little metal pieces that are going to actually cut a hole in your fabric. Generally there are either, you've bought a set of pliers that work for just one specific size. So my pliers came with the hole punch and the tools for inserting a 3/8ths inch grommet which is what is recommended for the boxwood hoodie pattern. But you can get different sizes of hole punches and other tools that go with your pliers so you can insert different sizes. But just know you have two pieces that go together to actually punch a hole in your fabric. And then you'll have two pieces that are used to actually hold your grommet and actually put the grommet unto your fabric. There's generally another metal piece and then a colored piece. Sometimes depending on the brand you're using the colored piece is indicative of the size. So it's sort of color coded to the size. Not the case with all brands but just know that that's why maybe yours might be a different color than mine if you're using a different brand. So the first thing you need to do is take your pliers and you want to insert the two pieces that are going to cut a hole in your fabric. And it's very simple. They have a little knob on the end and they go right into the hole of the pliers. They just slide right in. And sometimes you can only push 'em in a little ways with your hands first and then go ahead and just close the pliers together and that will push those two pieces in as far as they need to go into that tool. Once you've done that, now you can take your fabric. So I just have a little sample piece here but you're going to have marked where it is you want to insert your grommet. You're gonna take your plier and put whatever mark you've put on your fabric, center it on the tool that you have put in. So it's a little tiny circle. So you need to kind of visualize where the center of that circle is and just put that right over your mark. And it's just like using a hole punch. Just squeeze it together and sometimes you can almost hear it click, almost. As it goes through the fabric. Just a little bit, depending on your fabric, how thick it is. Just squeeze it really, really hard and then open it up. And it should cut a hole in your fabric. And this is the boiled wool that I'm using. Of course, if you're doing this on your sweater when you are putting in your grommet in the actual hood piece it's gonna be even a couple layers. So you're gonna need to sort of squeeze this pretty hard but then once you do, you're gonna open it up and it should cut a hole in your fabric. So I have this nice, even, perfect hole right in my fabric. And now I need to actually insert the grommet. So I need to take off the two pieces that I used to cut the hole. And your grommet plier will come with the tool needed to take those off. Now, the tool isn't always required. So sometimes you can just grab these and pull them out. But some of the pieces, because of their shape, it's hard to really get a good grip on them. So it provides a little tool to sort of push them out. You're gonna hook it unto the bottom and rock it forward. And all it does is just push that metal piece out far enough that you can grab it and then pull it out. So once you have cut your hole, now you're going to put on the other two pieces. So again, this is the other round piece. And then your colored piece that is associated with the size of grommet. Again, just push 'em in slightly and then close your pliers and that's going to make sure that it's holding them in place. Now you need to grab your grommet. A grommet is made up of two pieces, two parts. Sort of a front and back. And there's usually a male and a female end. So they are different, they look different. You need to make sure you have one of each. One is very, very flat. And one has sort of an area that sticks up in the center. You need to make sure you have one of each because they go together. You can't put two of one, or two of the other together. You need one of each. When you put this on, this is, the piece that is taller, this is what needs to unto the front. This is what you wanna see. And then you're gonna crimp down or fold over what's standing up here, around the back. So you wanna make sure, again, that's on the back or the wrong side. So you're not going to see that. So you're going to take your grommet, this is this area that you want on the front and you're going to put it through your piece of fabric, that hole that you perfectly punched with your hole punch, and then put on the back. Right like so. So, if you're looking at it, this is the wrong side because I can see what's sticking up of my grommet. I've put my back on. This is the front. This is what I want it to look like when I'm done. And now I'm going to take my pliers. And I want the color piece, this nice, big, round piece, that's what's going to hold the front of my grommet. And the circular piece that I have put on, the large circular metal piece, needs to be centered over what I want to fold down or crimp down on the back. So once I have it perfectly aligned all I have to do is squeeze down on it. Again, this might, you know you might have to put a little more pressure than if you're just using a little hole punch on paper. But you just wanna squeeze really, really hard and then you let up and now you have a perfectly inserted grommet. So again, your front looks nice and pretty and it's not marred at all because it's a plastic piece. So nothing has scratched it up. And on the back you can see all of the little, there's little indentations sort of where it has just folded down the front of the grommet over the back to secure it. And again, that's why you want that on the wrong side so you don't see it. But on the right side it's nice and flat. So again, it might be a tool that you don't already have and something that you go and buy specifically for this project. But I 100% recommend getting a grommet plier or a grommet insertion tool for inserting a grommet and not trying to do it without one because it's pretty near impossible. Now again, if you don't wanna do grommets at all then on this step in the boxwood hoodie, instead of doing grommets or inserting the grommets, go ahead and just sew some button holes. So, this is a 3/8ths inch grommet. So you can pick a button hole that is about the same size or you need to associate your button hole size with your draw string size. So the pattern recommends using some twill tape and you can use any sort of width of that you want. 5/8th inch, half inch. And it is tape so its a little bit more flexible to go through a button hole than an actual button. So just know that if you don't have the grommet insertion pliers and don't feel like going and buying a new specialty tool, just go ahead and use a button hole and make a button hole in this area instead. But definitely use your grommet insertion pliers for inserting the grommets.