Eyelets for curtains: types of elements, installation at home, instructions for installing metal rings

Advantages of choice

1. Reliability.

Curtains hung on grommets are almost impossible to tear off even with a good tug or sharp pull. The cornice is more likely to not withstand the load than the fastening.

Curtains with eyelets are reliable and safe

2. Aesthetics.

The neat, even waves formed by the curtains look impressive in the interior design of any stylistic orientation. The fixtures themselves will also decorate the interior. Today, eyelets are offered in a wide variety of shades and shapes, which makes it easy to select them for decorating rooms of a wide variety of functionality and design. All that remains is to solve the question of how to install eyelets on curtains with your own hands.

Curtains with eyelets are suitable for any interior style

3. Durability.

Since the fasteners do not have sharp teeth that can deform the fabric and leave unsightly puffs on it, the curtains will last for decades.

Eyelets will extend the life of curtains

4. Easy to operate and maintain.

Curtains are equally easy to hang and remove. They do not lose their shape when washed. The reliability of the fasteners and the ease of their movement along the cornice will make it easy for even a child to curtain the window.

Curtains with grommets are easy to hang and remove

Pros and cons of self-installation

Installing eyelets on curtains at home is not very difficult. But before starting work, you should clearly weigh the pros and cons. So, the pros:

realization of creative potential;
as a result, you can get exclusive curtains that you can be proud of;
saving the family budget - installing such fasteners yourself will cost much less than purchasing a finished product or having it sewn in a studio.

Now let's move on to the cons:

you will have to look for the necessary fabric and eyelet model;
you need to spend time cutting and sewing curtains;
installation of fasteners is a painstaking process, it will require time and effort;
there is a possibility that the result will not meet expectations.

Related article: How to choose a carpet for a modern interior? (15 photos)

What is a grommet

Before looking for master classes and figuring out how to put grommets on curtains with your own hands, you need to understand what it is all about. A grommet is a special fitting for sewing textiles, shaped like a ring and installed directly on the fabric. Such elements are in demand not only in sewing curtains. They are used in the manufacture of tents, sails, leather goods, shoes, and awnings. The ease of installation, functionality and durability of the fittings made the scope of its application almost unlimited.

Species diversity

Any step-by-step instructions on how to make curtains with grommets with your own hands begins with choosing accessories. Depending on the material used, eyelets can be:

metal;
plastic;
wooden.

Plastic fasteners are considered the most practical. They are not afraid of corrosion, so the curtains can be washed without removing the fastening elements.

Plastic eyelets

Plastic eyelets slide along the curtain rod quietly, with a pleasant rustling sound.

With good quality plastic, the parts will last a long time and without incident.

Such an important question of how to install grommets on curtains with your own hands can also be resolved in no time.

Installing eyelets yourself is not difficult

The next category by which eyelets are selected is design. The fittings can be transparent, have a pattern or be plain, or be an imitation of natural textures and other materials. To make your own curtains with metal eyelets, you can choose bronze, gold-plated, or chrome-plated models. For greater decorativeness, products may contain rhinestones or other decorations.

Metal eyelets for curtains

If we talk about the form, then there is plenty to choose from. In addition to traditional round options, you can buy eyelets in the form of:

triangles;
squares;
oval

Square eyelets

There are also figured accessories depicting, for example, a fish, a frog, a cloud, a flower, or a ship's wheel. Master classes offer hand-sewn curtains with such eyelets for children's rooms.

How to choose the right grommet

“Step-by-step instructions for installing grommets on curtains with your own hands focus attention on one more point - the role of details in interior design”

There are several indicators by which curtain fittings are selected. The first and main parameter is the diameter of the eyelet. The curtains should slide easily along the cornice, and this will be possible only if the diameter of the inner part of the grommet is at least a centimeter larger than the diameter of the cornice.

The second parameter that is taken into account when purchasing accessories for sewing curtains with eyelets with your own hands is the type of fabric. If it is light organza or tulle, then they will look organic on small fasteners; for heavy materials, massive holders will be needed.

Light organza or tulle looks organic on small fasteners

Usually, eyelets with a diametrical size of the inner ring of up to 5 cm are used for window decoration.

The color of the fasteners should be correlated with the design of the cornice, curtains or furniture available in the interior.

Step-by-step instructions for installing eyelets on curtains with your own hands focus on one more point - the role of details in interior design. If you want to draw attention to an unusual way of attaching curtains, you should use bright or curly eyelets. In thematic interiors it is worth using decorative models. Thus, in a room decorated in a nautical theme, curtain mounts in the shape of dolphins or anchors will be relevant, and in a nursery stylized as a green lawn, frog eyelets will be an excellent addition to the interior idea.

Eyelets for curtains in contrasting colors

How to make eyelets at home

At home, eyelets are not so difficult to make, because, in fact, these are curtain fasteners themselves. For this purpose you will need such devices as:

Hole punch/punch/scissors (depending on the density and structure of the selected fabric).
Ruler.
Pencil (it is better not to use a marker, since it is not as easy to wash it off the fabric as a pencil, which will be invisible even without washing).
Metal rings.
Hammer.
Pre-prepared fabric (sewn if necessary).

After trying on the fabric on the curtain rod, you need to decide what distance will be between the eyelets, based on the width of the future curtain and the number of metal rings on hand. Having drawn everything out on the fabric, you can start making holes using a special hole punch, punch or scissors.

The same distance is left between each eyelet - for curtains it can be 17 cm.

Having dealt with the holes, you need to take a metal ring and a hammer and fasten the connection between the fabric and the metal. If you only have plastic eyelets on hand, you can use them, but then it is better to replace them with metal ones. After this, the curtains can be additionally ironed and hung on the curtain rod.

The processing should include 12 cm at the top, 5 cm for the hem at the bottom and 2 cm at the sides, as well as the internal and external diameters of the holes at 35 and 55 mm.

Eyelets in stylish interiors

There are a lot of design options for living space. If you are afraid that curtains made with eyelets made in accordance with the master class with your own hands may not fit into the decor, calculate in advance where such designs will be absolutely relevant.

You can decorate windows in a similar spirit in all minimalist directions, loft, Scandinavian style, madder.

Curtains with eyelets in a modern interior

Wooden eyelets will harmoniously fit into ethno-decor and rustic interiors.

The modernity of the decor will be emphasized by metal fittings, but it’s better to ask the experts how to make curtains with grommets with your own hands for modernism and art nouveau.

Metal fittings will emphasize the style of the interior

Description of curtains

Typically, eyelet curtains are divided into two types:

Having small rings;
having large rings.

The second type allows you to make installations much simpler. Larger rings are attached directly to the cornice. If you use rings that are small in size to install curtains, then you must additionally use hooks needed to fasten the eyelets and cornice.

Today, eyelets are made from various materials:

Metal;
plastic;
tree.

Most often, thick fabric is used as a material for curtains, so it is recommended to choose metal eyelets. They have a huge service life, and thanks to them a beautiful drapery is formed that does not bend under the weight of the structure.

The strip (cornice) is of particular importance when choosing curtains. Because the bar is clearly visible.

The cornice used for curtains with rings has several varieties:

If you want to use light fabric (for example, tulle) as a material, then you need to use a strip made of plastic. Tulle is a delicate fabric, so plastic rings are the best option.

Rings made of wood are perfect if the interior of your room is made in country style. The main advantage is that wood is an environmentally friendly material.

Today, eyelets have different shapes. In addition to the round one, there are rings representing various geometric shapes.

The main thing is that the eyelets must match the color of the curtain material or, conversely, stand out strongly.

Next, we will consider the advantages and disadvantages of this element.

Curtain material

What kind of fabric to decorate a window with is a rhetorical question. You need to choose the color and density of the material taking into account the functionality of the room and its design. The opinion that it is impossible to install eyelets on curtains made of tulle, viscose and other light fabrics with your own hands has no basis. Feel free to wear mesh and organza veil. If the strength of their combination with eyelets is still in doubt, resort to the original trim with denser fabric in the area where the fasteners will be placed. For beginning needlewomen, this is a great chance to also test their design skills.

Eyelets can be installed on even the lightest fabrics

What kind of fabric and how much should I use?

An attempt to make curtains with grommets with your own hands at random, without first calculating their footage, is unlikely to be successful. How much fabric is needed and what width depends on the size of the window opening, interior design features and personal wishes. Curtains can be made long or short. In a living room or bedroom, they usually decorate the window with long curtains, but in the kitchen they try to make them shorter, up to the window sill at most. The chosen model should not contradict the general solution, so it is important to choose the right color and type of material.

The length and volume of curtains depends on the interior features

What to take?

DIY curtains with eyelets for the living room

The color scheme for the design of the window area should echo the style of the interior of the room. Blackout blackout curtains combined with snow-white openwork tulle will suit a simply but elegantly decorated living room.

Black curtains for a classic interior

For rustic interiors, you need to choose fabric with a checkered pattern. These can be cuts in light colors with finely drawn lines or thicker fabric with a two-color check. The priority is a combination of red and blue, green and turquoise colors.

Curtains with a checkered pattern for country style interiors

High-tech is the realm of cold and gray colors, so when you think about how to make curtains with grommets with your own hands, do not go beyond the agreed spectrum.

In modernism we need to add pastel and beige tones.

Decorating a window in the bedroom

Curtains in a room of such functionality should not be an accent element of the decor. Their task is to ensure sleep comfort, so the fabric must be selected dense enough to absorb light well. The color of the curtains is calm and deep. The print is not bright.

For the bedroom, choose dense, light-absorbing fabric

How much should I take?

Any master class on sewing curtains with eyelets with your own hands emphasizes that the main task is to create a design that gathers into beautiful folds. Whether the event will be a success or not depends on the correct calculation of the width of the curtain and on how to install eyelets on the curtains with your own hands. The walking distance and some other points will be important here, which will be discussed below.

The width of the curtains is calculated using the following formula: the length of the curtain rod is multiplied by 2 or even 2.5. The larger the folds needed, the greater the coefficient. For tulle and light curtains there is no need for large wave folds, so here the coefficient is reduced to 1.5.

Calculation of the pitch distance between eyelets

Don't forget to include allowances for hems in the width of the strip. The side seams will take up to 15 cm of fabric. The bottom hem requires 5 cm. On top you need to leave a strip equal to the width of the grommet and add another 2-3 cm to it. For fabrics that do not hold their shape well, the space from the grommet to the edge of the product is reduced to a minimum.

Attention! If you plan to cover a window with two curtains, then when selecting printed fabric, do not forget about the allowance for matching the pattern.

Selection of materials

Materials should be selected taking into account the size of the eyelets and rods of the ceiling cornice. The inner diameter of the ring should exceed the diameter of the cornice rod by 2 centimeters. Otherwise, the fasteners will have difficulty moving along the rod.

The color of the fittings is usually matched to the color of the curtains or fabric for sewing curtains . You can choose a contrasting shade of eyelets, with which you can highlight the beauty of the product. Depending on the style of the room and the window opening, the fastening material is selected. If you want to choose a practical plastic product, there will not be any particular difficulties.

Calculations

To ensure that the product looks beautiful and the fastenings do not bulge in all directions, you need to install an even number of elements. If these are two curtains, the number of eyelets on each of them should be the same.

Why only even numbers? This is the only way to turn the side cuts towards the window and make the whole composition aesthetic.

On average, how many fasteners are required for one curtain? Watch any master class on how to make curtains with grommets with your own hands, and you will understand that it is recommended to install at least 6 of them per linear meter. In general, to fully calculate the number of fittings, the following indicators are needed:

diameter of the inner ring of the eyelet – conventionally designated d;
The width of the curtain is conventionally designated L.

How to calculate the size and install eyelets on curtains with your own hands? The inside of the part must exceed the volume of the cornice strip. This is important for comfortable operation of curtains. If the cornice strip is 16 mm wide, it can be fitted with grommets with at least a 25 mm inner ring. 35 mm grommets, etc., can be placed on a 25 mm cornice pipe without any problems.

Calculation of the location of eyelets on curtains

Go ahead. Let's assume that there is work to be done to install 25 mm eyelets on a two-meter wide curtain. From master classes on curtains with eyelets with our own hands, we know that 6 fasteners are required per meter. We multiply the indicator by 2 and get the consumable number of fittings - 12. Now these dozen eyelets need to be evenly distributed over the entire width of the curtain, that is, we have to find the pitch distance. Let us take it as an axiom that the outer eyelets will be located at a distance of 3 cm from the side edge of the curtain fabric. We multiply 3 by 2 and get 6 cm. We immediately subtract them from the total width. We will have 194 cm left.

Now let’s determine what part of this figure, when sewing curtains with grommets with your own hands, will be given to the grommets themselves. We have 12 elements of 2.5 cm each. We multiply the indicators. As a result, we get 30 cm. We also subtract this number from the total size. We have 164 cm left at our disposal. We will distribute the fasteners between them.

Although we have 12 elements, there are only 11 spaces between them. This means that we will divide 164 by this number. Having performed the calculation, we get a step distance of 14.9 cm. It fits perfectly into the recommended master classes for curtains with eyelets with your own hands, which means We have done everything correctly and you can start marking and sewing the intended product.

How to wash properly

Let's consider another question that interests many: how to properly wash curtains with plastic or metal rings.

They are much easier to remove and hang back after washing, which is a big advantage compared to regular curtains.

Machine washable

First you need to find out whether curtains with rings can be washed in a washing machine. It is best to place the curtains in a special washing bag to prevent the rings from damaging the drum. If this bag is not available, a regular pillowcase will replace it. If the rings are of high quality, rust will not appear on them. Tulle is not wrung out after washing; it is hung wet.

Hand wash curtains

If you don’t want to risk curtains and the washing machine, wash the curtains by hand. To do this, without removing the rings, soak the curtains in lukewarm water for 2 hours, and then rinse thoroughly so that there are no streaks left. You definitely won't get them from regular shampoo.

Sometimes it happens that when washing in a machine, the fabric may come out from under the eyelets, but usually this is only due to their incorrect installation during sewing. The problem is easily solved by reinstalling the incorrectly secured grommets.

How to make curtains with eyelets with your own hands: step-by-step instructions

What to cook:

fabric cuts;
accessories;
scissors;
grommet tape;
sewing machine

The cuff is sewn first. To sew it, you will need a strip of fabric 25 cm wide and of arbitrary length. We bend the resulting part in half and iron it. Having straightened it to the fold line, we put the grommet tape along the wrong side and fix the dublerin to the fabric with an iron. The right side of the cuff will be the one where the grommet tape lies.

Attach grommet tape

We smooth the strip of fabric remaining under the grommet tape inward. We bend the top seam allowance to the front side and also iron along the fold.

Fold the seam allowance and stitch it

With our own hands we process the side seams of the curtains on the grommets. We use a double hem.

We match the cuff with the top edge of the curtain and secure the result with pins. This will help to create an even stitch without shifting the cut details.

We tuck the excess cuff on the sides inside and stitch the seams. All that remains is to install the fasteners.

Which eyelets to choose?

You need to wisely choose the right model of eyelets before sewing them onto the curtains. In this case, you must take into account the type of cornice, its color and what material it is planned to make the curtains from, as well as the color and shade of the fabric. If the color of the eyelets is planned to be contrasting with the curtains, then a variety of figured models in bright colors may be best suited for this.

Product color variations

Modern curly eyelets will delight the eye not only with the simplicity of geometric shapes; they come in the shape of fish, toads, birds, ship's steering wheels, etc.

Figured product variations

The size of the cornice directly determines how large or small your eyelets can be made. It will be correct if you find the eyelets one and a half centimeters larger than the cornice itself. This is necessary to facilitate the movement of the eyelets along the cornice tube so that they do not get stuck and “feel” free.

It seems difficult to install such fastenings at home with your own hands. When purchasing, we remind you that it is important to pay attention to the material from which these products are made. In addition to the fact that the eyelets must move along the cornice without noise, they should also not damage the cornice in any way or stain the curtains. If everything is done correctly, your eyelets can be removed for washing without much effort, and then fixed in their rightful place.

How to install eyelets on curtains with your own hands

We iron the curtains and place them on a flat surface. We lay out the fittings according to the calculated diagram and outline the inside with chalk (or a pencil).

Trace the inside of the grommet

Using sharp scissors, holes will be carefully cut along these circles with a diameter slightly larger than the resulting circle. This must be done so that the edges of the fabric do not fray. Ideally, use a special punch for this part of the work.

Carefully cut the holes

How to put eyelets on curtains yourself? This is perhaps the easiest part of the work. The inner part of the fittings is placed at the bottom of the fabric under the cut hole, the second is placed on top.

Press the rings with your fingers until they click

Pressing the top part, we wait for a characteristic click. Turn the curtain over and repeat the procedure on the other side. We install the remaining elements using the same principle. The curtain can be hung!

How to wash properly

Let's consider another question that interests many: how to properly wash curtains with plastic or metal rings.

They are much easier to remove and hang back after washing, which is a big advantage compared to regular curtains.

Machine washable

Hand wash curtains

How to care for curtains with hand-sewn eyelets

“If you decide to sew curtains with eyelets with your own hands, do not use cheap metal”

The main care for textiles is washing, but before you put the curtains in the machine, you need to make sure that the type of eyelets installed on them can be exposed to moisture. There is always a mark about this on factory-made fittings.

Machine washing can cause accidental damage to the fabric or fastening rings, so before placing the product in the drum, you must place the product in a special mesh bag. If there is no such thing in the house, then a pillowcase can take over its function.

A washing bag will protect the fabric from accidental damage

If you have already decided to show a master class and sew curtains with eyelets yourself, do not take cheap metal. When washed, rust will certainly form under such rings.

When drying this type of curtain, you cannot use a centrifuge. The eyelets will become loose and lose their fixation strength.

After washing, hang curtains on the curtain rod while still slightly damp.

And one last thing. Such products are washed no more than once every six months. The rest of the time, you can simply remove dust from them by shaking them out or vacuuming them.

Types and materials

The overlays come in standard round, square and various shapes. Manufacturers also produce polygon eyelets and animal figures. The variety depends on the overall design intent and purpose for a specific application. If grommets of the required shape are not found, a separate special order will be required. Based on the material used, there are metal, plastic and wooden linings. In the fashion industry, the plastic version is more often used. They are easier to attach and cheaper. Metal parts are more reliable, but make more noise. If a metal strip is threaded through the holes, it will scratch and wear out. However, for large objects like tents it is better to use metal options. Wooden overlays are useful for a certain interior, for example, simultaneously with the use of aged furniture.