How Does the Cricut Maker Cut Fabric?

Learn how the Cricut Maker cuts fabric and what fabric it can cut. See what happens when there’s a bubble in the fabric and what happens if you choose the wrong setting.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.

I’ve cut multiples layers of quilting cotton, faux leather, and swim trunk fabric with the Cricut Maker, but I wanted to see how many different types of fabric the Cricut Maker would cut and how well it would cut them. What would happen if I chose the wrong fabric?

The Cricut Maker* is unique in that it has a rotary blade and can cut any unbonded fabric. Instead of a knife that drags along the mat to cut the material, the rotary blade rolls around on the fabric cutting it just like a hand rotary blade. It can make very accurate and detailed cuts.

Although the rotary blade only works with the Cricut Maker, it has an adaptive toolset so it works for really thick and heavy material along with thin and lightweight material. I don’t think I’ve ever cut a perfect circle from fabric until now.

Since the Cricut Maker is able to cut any fabric, I wanted to try out ten different fabrics to see how well it would do. I cut quilting cotton, cotton flannel, wool coating, mysterious lightweight polyester fabric, non-stretch denim, cotton canvas, and satin. I also cut out cotton spandex, cotton interlock, sweater fabric, and polar fleece.

How to Put Stretchy Fabrics on the Fabric Grip Mat

When you put a woven fabric on the fabric grip mat it’s not that hard to put it on since it doesn’t stretch. When you put a stretchy fabric on the mat it gets really hard to keep it from stretching out.

I like to hold the fabric just above the mat and use the brayer to roll and stick the fabric onto the mat.

How Does the Cricut Maker Cut Fabric?

I cut the polar fleece with the Fleece setting. It cut perfect circles.

I cut out this sweater knit using the Raschel knit setting. The fabric left a lot of fuzz behind on the mat and the circles aren’t perfect because the fabric has so many holes.

The cotton interlock was cut perfectly into circles using the interlock setting. It even pulled off the mat well.

I cut cotton spandex jersey with the jersey setting. It cut well, but the circles got slightly distorted when pulled off of the mat.

I knew the quilting cotton would cut well because I’ve done it before using the cotton setting. I also sewed the circles of the quilting cotton, cotton spandex, and cotton interlock into reusable face rounds which is a great scrapbuster!

I cut the canvas using the canvas setting, and it worked great. It comes off the mat well too.

I cut the flannel using the flannel setting and it cut well, but the flannel frayed a little bit when I pulled it off of the mat.

I was a little skeptical about cutting wool coating since it’s a heavier fabric. I used the wool fabric setting and the fabric was cut like a dream. They was hardly any fraying! If you want to cut a bunch of wool circles you can make them into felted wool balls.

What Happens if There’s a Bubble in the Fabric?

When I put the denim on the fabric mat I didn’t realize that there was a bubble in the fabric on one corner. Once I cut it out using the denim setting one of the circles wasn’t fully cut, and I had to use scissors to separate it.

When you smooth the fabric on make sure you use the brayer to get all those bubbles out for smooth and accurate cuts.

What Happens if You Choose the Wrong Fabric Setting?

I had this polyester fabric in my stash, but I don’t know what it actually is. It’s slightly sheer and very lightweight, so I chose the chiffon setting. When I was pulling it off the mat the circles were barely cut, so I had to tear them out. I should’ve used a fabric setting that was a slightly thicker type to have successful cut circles.

If you make something using this sewing project, I’d love to see! Please share it on social media with the hashtag #heatherhandmade and tag me!