How to Cut Appliqué with a Cutting Machine

Jul 1, 2020

By Appmate Collaborator

Our appliqué and sewing patterns are designed to be used in a variety of ways for a variety of projects.

This is not a full tutorial on how to use your Cutting Machine but a simple step by step guide to show you how easy it is to use our SVG and FCM files to create your own appliqué project.

For this quick guide we are using our Flower Garden Appliqué pattern.

This appliqué is available FREE to subscribers of our weekly newsletter - Flower Garden Appliqué

Import your SVG Files to your cutting machine - we are using a Cricut for our project.

These SVG files come with all of our Appliqué and Sewing Patterns, specifically to make our appliqué as quick and easy to use as possible.

Importing SVG Files in Cricut Design Space

Log in to Design Space.
Click the Create New Project button.
Click the Upload Image button.
Click the Vector Upload button.
Click the Browse button and locate your SVG file that you want to import.

Start by laying your backing fabric, face up, on your cutting mat and load this into your Cricut.

Then draw your pattern onto your backing fabric. This will be a guide for your fabric appliqué and is a great alternative to using a light box.

Rather than using a cutting blade on your cutting machine, replace this with a black or coloured felt tip pen. There are a wide variety of options available to use, the main this to consider is how well this will stand out on your backing fabric.

A dark fabric may need a light or white ink pen. Select and use whatever works best for you.

Now that the pattern is drawn out on the backing fabric, select the fabrics for your delightful Flower Garden Appliqué.

Cut these selected fabrics into shapes slightly larger than the shape your appliqué requires on your pattern.

Iron on an adhesive fusible webbing to the back of each of the pieces of fabric you've cut.

Remove the backing to reveal the adhesive side of the fusible webbing.

Once this is peeled away you can press your appliqué fabric to your fusible webbing.

Once all of the fabric pieces have the fusible webbing pressed to them individually, these are cut out again and laid down on your cutting/sticky mat and then it's time to load them into the cutting machine.

Using the 'Snap Mat' feature of the Cricut Software helps to ensure that your appliqué pieces are cut in the correct order.

SnapMat helps you visualise image and text placement by capturing a photo of your material on the cutting mat. You can see the layout as a virtual mat preview.