I think I could be the last person in the crafting world to realize I could run fabric through my die cut machine. I’m embarrassed to admit that this has never dawned on me before, but I am so excited to play around with this idea. I don’t know why it suddenly hit me as I was walking through the isles of my craft store, but I thought to myself, “Why in the world have you never tried this before?” I guess I thought you had to have a special machine or die, but no. I have a Cuttlebug machine and I used a Sizzix Bigz die, and presto…perfectly cut shapes!
Now, what to do with all of these perfectly precise pieces? Well, first, think of how much quicker machine applique now is. I pressed Steam-A-Seam 2 to the back of my fabric, rolled the fused piece through the cutter, and it was ready to be ironed to my fabric. No tracing, and no hand cutting, which when you’re doing a lot of applique, can really save you a lot of time.
Of course my next idea was to use these on cards. As all of you know by now, I love fabric cards. For this card, I used Steam-A-Seam 2 to adhere my background fabric to a piece of cardstock cut to the exact measurement of my card font. I then used a decorative stitch around the edge. Since these aren’t going to be going through the laundry and aren’t really going to be “manhandled” very much, I just fused the holly leaves (made of flannel I purchased at last weekend’s “yard” sale) to my background fabric, then added my beads and buttons as embellishments. I adhered the card front to the card base using an adhesive roller. I do this so that none of my machine or hand stitching can be seen on the inside of the card.
(A quick tip: I also tape my knots on the back of the card front. Something about the paper and its rigidity compared to fabric doesn’t allow you to tie your knots quite as tight, especially when hand sewing, so I use tape to help keep my stitches in place. Here’s a picture of what the back of my finished card front looked like before I adhered it to the card base.)
So, if you have a die cut machine, try this! Or maybe you already have one, and you’re thinking “Come on, Nikki…Keep up!” Either way, I hope I’ve inspired you to try something new today!
Enjoy,
Nikki, In Stitches
do you think it would work on the cricut machine?
Betsy,
Thanks so much for stopping by! I use a Cuttlebug machine…it’s a traditional die cutter that has a hand crank (it was a Christmas gift from my husband last year). I looked online at the Cricut (which I think is a computerized machine, right?) and they actually say that putting fabric through it could break the machine and will definitely void the warranty. I will admit though, if I were only going to use this to cut paper….I would go with the computerized machines…you get much more detail. But for me, a person who likes to experiment so much, the manual machine is perfect!
Hope this helps!
Nikki
Hi there Nikki and Betsy,
I don’t have personal experience with the Cricut machine (only watched the infomercial and thought it was amazing!) but my grandmother has one. She bought it specifically for cutting fabric – she loves to do applique work. I think she mentioned that there is an additional piece/cutter that you buy to go along with the Cricut to cut fabric.
~Kelsey
OH WOW I had NO idea! I just got my cuttlebug a few months ago, and never thought of it myself. So trust me your not the last to know!