Apr 28., 2018 / 3D Flowers

Will the Cricut Maker Cut Felt?

Will the Cricut Maker Cut Felt? Will it cut even inexpensive, loosely woven felt that has not been stiffened or backed? I purchased some felt in a variety of colors to do some test cutting from here. This is a 9″x12″ piece from a package of 10 sheets in different colors. I can cut felt on my other cutters if it is stiffened, backed with adhesive, or Heat n Bond, ironed between two layers of freezer paper, or cut on a very sticky mat. Cricut advertising for their Maker with the rotary cutting wheel and 4000 grams of available cutting pressure indicated that this machine would not require that fabric, felt included, be stiffened, adhesive backed, ironed between layers of freezer paper or cut on a very sticky mat.

Finding a Project to Cut in Felt

In order to cut to the Cricut Maker, users must sign in to the free Cricut Design Space software. No other software will cut to the Cricut Maker. There are Apps for use of this software on tablets as well as Windows or Mac computers. You can select a ready to cut project from Cricut Design Space called Felt Flower Wreath since this project was designed specifically for use with felt. You don’t have to cut all of the flowers for this project if you just want to experiment with cutting felt. This project is free to Cricut Access members. You may follow the instructions posted with the file for cutting and assembly of your felt flowers.

Cutting the Felt

Cricut recommends the use of the pink cutting mat that ships with the Cricut Maker for cutting fabric. You may use an older Cricut cutting mat if you prefer. I used an older cutting mat in case I had difficulty getting the felt residue off of the mat. This mat had very little adhesive left on it.

Old Cricut cutting mat with felt placed on it.

In the Cricut Design Space software, select Make It. Select just the Turquoise mat # 8 to cut. Make sure that your rotary blade is installed in the machine, and select the rotary blade option from the software. Select Felt as the media. Load the mat, and press the Start Button. The machine will cut the flower shapes.

Remove the excess felt from the mat.

The excess felt lifts away from the cut flowers easily and cleanly. Each flower layer is perfectly cut.

Felt flower layers cut cleanly.

The felt flowers lifted off of the mat nicely. They were all cut out perfectly with no snagging. Even though the mat was not very sticky, the cut pieces did not move around on the mat during cutting. The Cricut Maker Cut felt perfectly.

Cleaning the Cutting Mat

When the felt flowers are removed from the mat, they leave behind a residue that will not come off with a scraper tool.

Felt residue left on mat after cutting.

However, you may use alcohol-free baby wipes to remove this fabric residue. The old mat will clean up nicely with these wipes.

All Felt residue is gone using alcohol-free baby wipes.

The mat is ready to use again. You may notice that there are some excessively deep cuts in the mat where the roller blade cut circles. Cutting this type of felt may be cut using less pressure to avoid gouging the mat like this. The extra pressure cutting into the mat is not good for the blade either.

Use Hot Glue to Assemble the Flowers

Place hot glue on the tab of each flower layer to give it a cupped shape. You can use two or three layers for each flower, placing hot glue around the center of each layer to adhere the next smaller layer to it. You can glue one of the small cut circles to the center of the top layer, and embellish as you like. I used a pearl sticker in the center of each of my felt flowers. The cut felt flowers are ready to add to your favorite DIY craft project such as cards, home decor, hats, hair ornaments, and 3D projects.

Cut and assemble felt flowers.