How to Make Fabric Die Cuts with Your Cricut

Posted by: Dawn In: "How To" Instructions ()

The most recent issue (September 8, 2008 - Volume 120) of the Cricut Chirp e-mail newsletter featured a baby quilt embellished with fabric die cut letters cut from the ZooBalloo cartridge. The quilter who submitted the project used her Cricut to cut scrap paper, which she then used as a pattern to cut the fabric for her quilt.

Using your machine to cut patterns to use for quilting appliques is a great idea! However, did you know that you can use your machine to cut the fabric directly? An older issue of the Chirp newsletter featured this Q&A:

Q. Help! I'm new at this and need some tips. I was hoping to be able to cut fabric shapes to appliqué on my granddaughter’s clothes. When I tried it, my material just bunched up, it won't stay stuck to the mat.

A. Basic guidelines are that the material (paper or otherwise) needs to be stiff and firm enough for the Cricut blade to drag through it. So a more stretchy fabric would probably not work, unless it had Wonder-Under or something to keep it in place.

If you are not familiar with Wonder-Under, it is a paper-backed adhesive fusible web, one of many brands of fusible web on the market. Apply it with an iron to the wrong side of your fabric, and you will then have a stiff piece of material that your machine should be able to cut. I am guessing that the ladies over at Cricut suggested the Wonder-Under brand because it is very easy to work with. After fusing (usually to another piece of fabric), it leaves the material soft and flexible, and can be either washed in your machine or dry cleaned.

Have you tried this method for cutting fabric, or do you have a tip for anyone out there wanting to use their Cricut machine to make fabric die cuts? We love to hear from you, so please leave a comment below...