A New Applique Toy!

I have a new applique toy, and it is so much fun.  I pick up the Silhouette Cameo, and it so much fun to play with.  So far in the last couple weeks my applique projects have gone much faster.

As I'm designing in Adobe Illustrator I have save the template images as a SVG and the import the images in Silhouette.  Saving as SVG saves the image as its original size so I don't have to resize.

The Silhouette software is really easy to learn.  I found a lot of great information on internet and YouTube, if I needed a question answered.

The cutting mat is nice, it has a sticky surface to help keep the fabric or paper from moving.

To prepare the fabric, first spray the fabric with starch to get it stiff like paper.  Or you can use Terial Magic, which is a water soluble product that makes your fabric feel and act like paper, and stops the fabric from fraying.  It is easy to use, just spray, air dry, and iron.  After the fabric is ready, you can put on your fusible webbing.

Place the piece of fabric with fusible webbing down on the mat, but remember to remove the paper backing. Then place the mat in the Cameo, press the load mat button.

Then in the Silhouette software, tell the how you want to cut the design.  Then tell it to start and it will cut the pieces for you.

When the cutting is done you take the mat out and use the scraper to peel back the fabric off the mat carefully.

The pieces that are cut match the template pieces exactly in size, and have the fusible already on them so all I have to do is put them on the fabric.

In a couple hours, I cut over 200 pieces for my latest project. What a time saver.  I would have spent a day or two tracing, cutting the fabrics out.

I love my new silhouette! 

Back to work,

Tina