How to Cut Faux 'Stitching' with Silhouette

Last month I shared a tutorial on how to make a word into a shape in Silhouette Studio. I cut a LOVE heart for a shirt and then added some elbow pads. I got more questions about the elbow pads than the actual design I was sharing the tutorial on. Go figure.

Some wanted to know if I sewed on the elbow pads and others questioned how I did the stitching.  The truth is the elbow pads were 100% HTV and the 'stitching" wasn't stitching at all - but rather the shirt showing through the tiny oval cuts in the heat transfer vinyl.

This tutorial holds true for cutting faux stitching on pretty much any material (paper, vinyl or HTV). If you're interested in print and cut faux stitching, you can find a tutorial here. It also applies to any shape.  I made two different styles of elbow pads - oval and heart.

The first thing you want to do is draw the basic shape of your design. So use the draw an ellipse tool to draw an oval or grab a shape from your library.

Select the circle and then from the Offset Tool make an internal offset. The distance of the offset is totally up to you.  I went with .090.

Now select the internal offset line only.  Click on the Line Style tool along the top window and pick one of the dashed lines. The style is, again, up to you.

Give your dashed lines a weight by selecting them and either moving over the bar or typing in a value.  My 'stitches' are 3.0.  Now just because you gave the lines a weight does not mean they will cut correctly. 

The most important step is picking the correct type of cut line. Select the dashed oval and from the Cut Style window pick "Cut Edge."

If you pick 'Cut' the machine will cut the dashes as single 'splices' as opposed to tiny ovals. (Ignore the fact that the outer oval line has been deleted in the next screen shot, you DO NOT want to delete that outer oval or you'll have stitching but no 'pad'.)

I cut them side by side here so you can see the difference.  This is the exact same oval of dashed lines. The ONLY difference is that the one on the left is "Cut Edge" while the one on the right is "Cut."

The outer circle, because it's just a solid line, can be either 'cut edge' or 'cut' because in that case, they are essentially the same thing.

So that's all there is to creating the stitched elbow patch designs in Silhouette Studio. Now just cut them out, weed out the 'stitching', and press them on!

Raglan shirts can be found here

Note: This post may contain affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing products through my links, I receive a small commission. That's what helps fund Silhouette School so I can keep buying new Silhouette-related products to show you how to get the most out of your machine! 

Thanks for coming to class today at Silhouette School.  If you like what you see, I'd love for you to pin it!