I was making an costume for a friend using a white hoodie. I needed to add some felt details for the buttons, eyes and eye brows. The first thing I did was create the design in Silhouette Studio.
The felt we used was sheets purchased from the craft store. This was not adhesive backed felt, just plain ol' felt rectangles.
To prepare the felt, I ironed a piece of freezer paper onto the back of each piece. This makes the felt a little more stiff and easier to cut.
I put a brand new fabric blade into my Silhouette. Did you know the regular cutting blade and the fabric blade are actually the same with the exception of the color? The blue fabric blade just lets you distinguish it as such so you only cut fabric with it and other materials with the black blade.
In Studio, I added a custom cut setting for felt so I wouldn't forget what cut settings worked for future felt projects. Blade: 10, Thickness: 33, Speed 2, Passes 2 (double cut).
Put the felt onto the cutting mat, with the freezer paper side down and then send your design to cut.
The pieces lifted right out...even the really thin eyebrows. However on one of the pieces, there were a few areas of the felt that didn't get fully cut through and a few fibers were still attached. They were minor, as you can see here and had to be snipped with scissors.
You can snip them with scissors or you can send the design through to cut again as long as you didn't unload the cutting mat from the machine.
Each piece of felt was attached to the sweatshirt with hot glue.
And here's how it all came together. Could he be any cuter?
The second option, rather than using a fabric blade, is to cut felt with a Silhouette Deep Cut Blade. With Acrylic Craft Felt I was able to really cleanly cut felt.
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!
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Are you able to use the felt with adhesive?
ReplyDeleteI was thinking that if you used an iron on adhesive, such as wonder-under, then you could just iron the felt to the sweatshirt.
ReplyDeleteDoes the freezer paper come off the back? I have a felt project but I need it to be the same on both sides and freezer paper free. thanks!
ReplyDeleteYes, freezer paper peels off easily :)
DeleteWhat do you mean by double - double cut? Send it thru the machine twice? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI checked,double checked and triple checked all of my settings and it didn't even try to cut.
ReplyDeleteI got it!! I went all the way back to step one...the only thing I did different was I changed my blade to 9 and it cut great.
ReplyDeleteDo you iron the freezer paper shiny side on the fleet or dull side on the felt?
ReplyDeleteFelt not fleet. ugh, auto correct.
DeleteI have tried a couple times with the settings you mentioned above & then even with my deep cut blade (i have a curio) set to maximum & it barely cut at all. it kept pulling off of the freezer paper during cutting. I tried different lengths of time ironing on the paper but still no go. any suggestions?
ReplyDeleteyou can also double the freezer paper if you need to - but you might try a fusible - I have a felt project that I am working on and I will share later when it is done
DeleteThis was a complete fail. The first time, the felt came off the freezer paper, it all bunched up, and my mat was cut. :( The second time, the felt was barely cut at all.
ReplyDeleteI use Wonder Under and it works like a charm. I do lots of projects with felt cutting out letters.
DeleteI'm sorry, but how does the freezer paper stick to the felt when you iron it on? Is there some type of adhesive?
ReplyDeletethe wax
DeleteAnyone else have problems with the felt just bunching and not cutting?
ReplyDeleteWhat settings did you use when you had the Deep Cut Blade in?
ReplyDeleteI don't have a Thickness setting for SS 4.2.471ssbe but there is a Force setting. What do you recommend?
ReplyDeleteI needed to make a bunch of eyelashes for a spider mask (eight eyes, lol) and I didn't want to hand-cut them all. I sketched them, scanned them, traced them in an art program, imported them into Silhouette Studio, created the outlines, duplicated them as needed, and then followed the instructions here. They came out great. :) I did go ahead and use my regular blade because it's all I have. I did this with the pre-stiffened felt you can buy in rectangles in the craft store.
ReplyDelete