How to cut Fabric with a Silhouette CAMEO Tutorial

Happy happy Friday! {can’t believe its finally here} Want to learn how to cut fabric using your CAMEO? {don’t know what i’m talking about? see my review here} Well, I’m going to show you how AND give you a sneak peek at the theme for the baby’s room in our new home. ok, so he’s like 16 months old now, but he’s still my baby!

boyYep, orange, green, gray and dinosaur. love it.

And of course, there will be a few polka dots. love polka dots. {and from what i see and hear, they are quite popular right now}

I used my nifty new Bigger Silhouette Cutting Mat with some Clean Cut Interfacing and fabric to create that adorable triceratops up there. {in case you were wondering, the new mat rocks! its sticky, but not overly sticky. and the bigger size is really handy.}

How to Cut Fabric with a Silhouette CAMEO

instructions for cutting fabric with a cameo

  1. I used a 12″x24″ canvas {you could very easily use wood instead}
  2. Cut your fabric to 11.5″x 23.5″ and a piece of Clean Cut Silhouette Interfacing to 12″x 24″. Place the rough side of the interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric and iron {with fabric right side up} for 2 seconds.
  3. Peel the fabric away from the paper backing. Tip: Make sure all the adhesive transfers to the fabric. You’ll be able to tell because the wrong side of the fabric will be shiny and smooth as you can see in the picture.
  4. Trim off excess interfacing adhesive.
  5. Press the wrong side of the fabric onto the cutting mat. Make sure there are not bubbles and that the fabric lays flat.
  6. Design what you’d like to cut. Note: If you’re using the larger 12″x 24″ mat, you’ll need to change the length of your cutting area. Load into your cutting mat. Instead of using the preset settings in Silhouette Studio for cutting fabric, I changed my settings slightly to: Speed: 3 Thickness: 30 and Blade: 4 This cut my light weight cotton fabric cleanly with no strings left. {if you’d like to see a screen shot of my settings, scroll down} TIP: I very highly recommend doing a test cut before you cut your design to make sure the settings work well with your fabric. 
  7. Success! isn’t he adorable??

Screen shot of my settings:

stilhouette studio software

How to Make it into a Wall Hanging

canvas craft8. Iron your cut out onto the right side of a piece of fabric that measures 16″ x 28″. Press firmly and hold in place for 8 seconds.

9. Center your image on the canvas, wrap the edges of the fabric around to the back and hot glue in place.

10. Fold the corners to get a nice clean finish. Make sure to glue all layers of fabric down.

dinosauer craftAnd this it the first grouping to go in the little guy’s room. I still have a lot to do in there, including painting the walls.

Silhouette Discount

silhouette interfacing promotionRight now you can get 1 Clean Cut and 1 Sewable Interfacing + the New 12″ x 24″ Cutting Mat for $24.99! {$36 value}

>>>you’ll need code: CRAFT and this special link to get the Bundle deal. offer ends 2/29/12

More projects using the Silhouette Fabric Interfacing:

Linda
Hi! I'm Linda, the craft addict behind Craftaholics Anonymous®, a craft blog. Crafting is cheaper than therapy, right? When I'm not DIYing something, I can be found taxiing around our 4 crazy kids or working out. Or shoe shopping... because you can never have too many shoes! Happy crafting! ♥
Linda
Linda

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