Monday, April 15, 2013

Working with fabric on the Cricut

Last week I showed you a fabric bow I had created using the Cricut.  I made it using the Chantilly Textiles

chantilly textiles fabric bow cut from Artiste Cricut

This shape bow is from the Cricut Artiste Collection.  It’s found on page with the letter “G” of the handbook.   Just think G for Gifts because gifts come with bows.  That’s the way Jeanette Lynton and her team organized this Cricut cartridge.  You’ll find lots of other mnemonics in this cartridge too (F for flowers, M for movies & mustaches).  Let me know if you just had an “Ah ha” moment. 

 

I’ve tried cutting fabric on my Cricut in the past and failed.  I took shortcuts.  This time I had 100% success because I didn’t cheat.  And there’s been a lot more people doing it before me.  I found LeAnne’s blog post when I Googled “Cutting fabric on the Cricut.”  I struck gold!  Let me say that she now buys her Heat and Bond fabric stabilizer by the bolt.  She has plenty of experience!  So hop on over to her blog and take a minute to read her expertise and then come on back.  I have a couple more tips for you.  (My tips are called “What not to do”)

Since we’re  crafting and won’t ever be laundering our project, there’s no need to prewash or pre-shrink our fabric.

Iron it flat, then apply heat and bond to the area that you’re planning to cut.  PLAN.  Don’t waste fabric or Heat and Bond.

Start with a medium heat setting on your iron.  I had to go to medium-high on my iron to get the Heat and Bond to actually bond.

 

When you’re ready to cut it on your Cricut, put it on your mat.

  • My Cricut settings were Speed:  Medium.  Pressure:  Max.  Blade:  6. 
  • Use a brand new blade and keep it for just cutting fabric.  (I love LeAnne’s analogy:  You don’t cut paper with your fabric scissors,  Don’t cut fabric with your paper cutting Cricut blade)  
  • Cut your fabric.  I had no reason to use multi-cut.  It cut beautifully.
  • Remove the the fabric and heat and bond paper from your mat IMMEDIATELY after cutting. 
  • Change back to your old blade.  I forgot…. but I had been meaning to replace my old blade anyway. 

fabric mat mess1

The backer paper may remain in your mat.  This isn’t the same backer paper that you have when cutting vinyl.  This stuff will stick like crazy and tear into little pieces…. I left it on for just 2+ hours and if it had been cardstock, there would have been zero problem getting off.  This is not like cardstock.  It’s more like getting a Kleenex off your mat.   

There’s 8 minutes between these two pictures according to my date/time of my camera.  8 minutes of scraping a mat to get it somewhat useable.  Ugh.  Just learn vicariously from me:  take the paper off immediately. 

fabric mat mess 8 min later

 

Stay tuned, I also created some fabric roses!  I’ll be creating a post about them soon. 

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