Sewing with my Cricut and Silhouette Cameo

A few months ago, I was checking out Willow and Moo's flickr page (if you have not seen Sara's blog, you need to check that out too. Her sewing is TDF). I noticed she had made some really cool velours, which you can iron onto clothing. Instantly intrigued, I asked Sara how she did it, and she nicely explained that she has a Silhouette cutter. I had never heard of it and she told me it was like a Cricut (I had a vague idea what that was). I immediately sensed a new obsession coming on, but I didn't have time to do any research into the matter.

And then it was proven, once again, that I have the greatest husband in the world. I mentioned in passing that I would really love a Cricut so I, too, could cut out cool velours like that and he surprised me with one for Christmas! I was overjoyed! I played around with it a bit, and realized fairly quickly that it doesn't do what I thought it could. My impression was that you could get software that would allow you to cut out ANY image. Turns out that used to be true, but then the makers of Cricut sued those software companies, and now you can only cut out images from their cartridges. Well, rats. It is still a cool machine, and I do love the images that comes on the cartridges, but the VAST majority of those images are really cutesy stuff and totally not appropriate for boys, especially almost 9 year olds like the one in my house.

So, what to do? I did some research and found out that the Silhouette will cut out anything, as it uses software instead of cartridges. Now, normally I'm a pretty frugal person but in this instance, I completely lost my senses and did something extremely frivolous. I bought a Silhouette so that I could have the best of both worlds. My husband briefly tried to convince me to take the Cricut back, but I'd already grown attached to it. He knows better than to get me to part with one of my crafty machines!

Anyway, I've done a lot of experimenting with how to work these machines into my sewing. This was much harder than it sounds, as I've been absolutely slammed with work lately (I work part time - which often feels like time and a half - reading applications for a graduate program at UC Berkeley). It is just tortuous having so much work to do while I've got not one but two gleaming, super cool new toys to play with. ARGH! But by strategically re-aligning my priorities (ie, I stopped doing housework for 3 weeks) I managed to get some playtime in.

My first attempt was this shirt. I cut out the flowers and heart on my Cricut using fabric. This was a bit trial and error. I used Heat N Bond to stabilize the fabric, then cut it out with the paper side up. It didn't cut it them out perfectly, but good enough. I was going for a Boden-esque look here, obviously.

Pattern: Farbenmix Antonia

My next attempt was using some heat transfer flock, which I got from expressionsvinyl.com. As an aside, I do like that company, as they have nice video tutorials about how to use these machines with vinyl/flock and they ship fast too. The video tutorial says that you are supposed to adjust the blade depth so that it does not cut all the way through the transfer sheet. I tried cutting out these stars on my Cricut twice, and both times it went right through the transfer sheet. It really wasn't an issue though - I was able to use them just fine. With a more intricate design, that might be a problem - clearly, I will need to experiment some more.

I used the stars to decorate the sleeve and back of this Buzz Lightyear upcycled shirt for my little guy.

Pattern: Farbenmix Antonia

Then, I got my Silhouette. I figured out how to use the Print and Cut feature, which is just extraordinary. I found some images on the Internet that my boys would go crazy for. I downloaded them and then imported them into my Silhouette software. There were a few more steps in here that I can detail if anybody is interested, but basically, I printed them out on heat transfer sheets and cut them out with the Silhouette.

Of course, you don't need a cutter to do this, but the Silhouette is far quicker and more accurate than me with my little scissors!

Another thing I like about the Silhouette is that you can use any font on your computer to cut out letters. I used fabric and Heat N Bond to do the words on this shirt, for my oldest:

Pattern: Ottobre 4/08

Of course, my little guy took one look at this and lost his marbles. He could not WAIT for me to make him one too. This shirt is little boy bliss, let me tell you.

Pattern: Ottobre 4/08

Just when I thought my days of sewing for my almost 9 year old were numbered, the Silhouette has opened up whole new worlds to explore. I just finished this shirt this morning:

Pattern: Ottobre 4/08

Cutting this one out was a little more difficult. Even though I had traced the outline and told the Silhouette to just cut that out, it kept trying to cut all the little shadings inside the image (like around the eyeballs, for example). By doing a Low Pass Filter and setting the threshold on the trace almost down to zero, I was able to get it to just cut around the image. Sounds tricky, but it really isn't. 

The other thing these machines have done is introduced me into the world of scrapbooking. I had been trying really, really hard to avoid that whole scene, because I just don't have time for another hobby. My sewing machines sit neglected for far too long as it is! But now that I've got both the Silhouette and the Cricut, not to mention a stack of pictures from our trip to Disney World sitting around - well, there was no avoiding it any longer. I've started on the Disney scrapbook, and now have a new obsession. Where I'm going to store my scrapbooking stuff is a mystery. My house is not big enough for two hobbies!