Cutting Felt Applique Pieces Using a Pattern Printed by a Cutting Machine

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Felt is a wonderful textile to sew. Unlike fabric, felt can be tricky to cut out exactly for applique.

We chose to cut these pieces by hand for our Free Flowers Applique pattern rather than using the cutting machine. We are using variety of felt, differing in thickness and the cutting machine was finding it difficult to deal with the variety of thicknesses. We could have persisted with it but found it easier in the end to use the following method.

The method we will show you is "Using wax paper for cutting felt applique pieces". It will make cutting felt just as easy as cutting paper.

Wax paper is a two-sided utility paper that can be found at most stores (with the saran wrap, aluminum foil, etc.). One side of freezer paper is waxy and works to temporarily "fuse" your pattern to the felt when ironed. It will not damage the felt or leave any residue when it is removed. The other side is matte, just like regular paper, allowing you to trace on it.

To start with take out your roll of wax paper and cut this to the size of your low tack sticky mat (for your cutting machine).

Place your wax paper onto your low tack sticky mat, wax side down.

We like to use a washi tape to secure our wax paper to our cutting mat.

Washi Tape is a paper tape that is easily torn and leaves no sticky residue. This means its quick to use and remove as you need. You can purchase your very own Sweet Pea washi tape here. https://swpea.com/search?q=washi+tape

Once you have both the top and bottom edges of your wax paper secured you can load your mat into your cutting machine.

Insert the pen into the pen holder and insert that into the your cutting machine. Use the "draw" option instead of "cut" to draw the design onto the wax paper.

Now select your file.

You will need to use the svg (or fcm) mirrored pattern provided and move all the pieces so they are seperate. You can do this on your machine or in your cutting machines software program depending on what machine you own.

(We loaded the SVG file into our our canvas software on the computer. We then moved all the pieces so they are separate and saved them as a drawing file).

Load your file into your cutting machine.

Find this file, select and print.

And it's printed.

Remove your printed wax paper from the cutting mat.

Tip: Always replacing the plastic cover on your Sticky Mat will ensure that it remains sticky and will not be covered in thread or dust when not in use.

Rough cut your pattern pieces from your wax paper and get ready to stick them to your felt.

Now it's time to start pressing.

Place your pattern pieces onto your felt. Have your felt wrong side up and place the wax side of the paper against the fabric . (The light layer of wax on the paper will lightly adhere to the felt and make it easy to cut your applique pieces).