The Secret to Cutting Felt Out in Perfect Shapes

That’s right there is a secret to cutting felt out in perfect shapes. Cutting felt isn’t that hard, but cutting the felt in prefect shapes sometimes can be.

Felt is one of the best materials to use to start crafting. Because felt is a non-woven fabric, so that means you don’t have to worry about the felt fraying.

You can get a sheet of craft felt at craft stores for about 25 to 30 cents. So, it’s also one of the cheapest crafts you can start doing.

There is also different types of felt you can use for your felt craft project. There’s acrylic felt, wool felt and wool blend felt.

The acrylic felt that you get at the craft store is cheaper than the wool felt. Wool felt is the most expensive felt you can get. And the wool blend felt is not as expensive as the wool felt, but is more than the acrylic felt.

One of the most common questions about felt is “what felt should I use?” To me the type of felt you use depends on what you like and what your budget is. A lot of crafters don’t like acrylic felt, but acrylic felt is what I’m using currently. Not to say I won’t move to using wool or wool-blend felt in the future.

And I love all the great felt projects you can make. You can make dolls, quiet books, finger puppets, crowns, and all kinds of other toys. Besides toys you can also make pin cushions, gift tags, ornaments, cute bookmarks and more.

Here are some of my free felt patterns.

And here are some round-ups of free felt patterns.

And there are all kinds of felt patterns out there. Some are more easy than others, and some are harder. But, all the felt patterns can be very fun to make.

Save on your Pinterest for later Here.

What cutting tools can you use to cut the felt?

You can use a couple of different tools to cut out your felt pieces. Scissors are one of the things you can use and probably the most common tool to use to cut out the felt. You just need to make sure that you have a pair of sharp scissors. Fabric scissors or shears are what I like to use and I always get great results with them.

And the best way to get a clean cut for all those detailed cuts is to use a pair of small scissors. Small scissors are the best thing to me that you can use for smaller cuts or more detailed cuts.

A rotary cutter is also something you can use to cut your felt. And when you use a rotary cutter you have to use a cutting mat. To me rotary cutters are great for straight lines, but tight corners and intricate cuts are harder to cut. The good thing about the rotary cutters is that when the rotary blade gets dull you can replace it with a new one.

A cricut machine can also cut your felt. My sister has a cricut maker and she has used it to cut felt with the pink fabric mat. You can also use a cricut joy to cut felt, even though the cricut joy doesn’t have a fabric blade.

So, you can use the fine point blade, to cut the felt with a cricut you just have to place heat n bond on one side of the felt. Then place that side on the mat and that helps to hold the felt while the machine cuts it.

Besides the fabric mat you can also get a light grip mat, standard grip mat, and a strong grip mat. To use with your cricut machine.

Here is my post on: The Best Scissors and Other Tools for Cutting Felt.

And now I’ll tell you the a couple different ways to help you cut your felt easier and to get more accurate cuts..

The Tracing Technique

This technique is a easy way to get perfect shapes of felt pieces for your craft projects.

What you do is you take your paper pattern and cut it out following the pattern lines. So, you to get the right size it helps to cut right on the lines.

Then you’ll take your washable fabric pen or any kind of fabric markers or pens that will work on felt. Just make sure that the pen won’t run on the felt and leave stains. I would test the marker on a piece of scrap felt just to make sure it won’t stain. Chalk will also work great to mark your dark colored felt.

Place the cut-out pattern on the felt. Trace around the pattern with your marking tools and then you can cut out your felt pieces. By following the traced lines on the felt.

Now, you can brush or wipe your chalk marks or pen marks. You can get a erasable fabric pen that you iron the fabric to remove the marks. But, I like to use the washable markers.

Using Freezer Paper

This next way to get perfect felt shapes is is also called the freezer paper method. Freezer paper is great because the waxy shiny side will temporarily stick to your felt with a quick iron.

And the great thing about this technique is that you can get freezer paper from any grocery store or you probably already have some in your kitchen. You’ll usually find freezer paper on the same aisle with wax paper and aluminum foil.

Like the tracing technique you’ll print and cut out the pattern pieces with regular paper. Then instead of tracing the pattern on the felt you’ll trace the pattern on the non-waxy paper side of the freezer paper.

Lay the waxy side of the freezer paper on the felt, then take your iron and run it over the matte side of the freezer paper. And the iron will make the the freezer paper stick to the felt temporarily.

Now you can cut the felt by following the traced pattern shapes on the freezer paper. After you’ve cut out the felt you can peel the freezer paper off the felt very easily.

Pinning The Pattern

This is the method that I use most of the time to cut out my felt or any other type of material. And this is a faster method then the different techniques above. Because you don’t have to trace the pattern pieces on the felt or freezer paper.

The first thing you’ll do is just print out the paper template and then cut out the pattern pieces. Then you pin the the pattern pieces to the felt.

For the best results you’ll pin the pattern on the top part and bottom edge and the sides. I like to pin the pattern in a couple of different spots.

Now you’ll cut the felt by following along the pattern edge. See that’s all you do to use the pinning method of cutting out your felt.

You can use this for simple shapes or for a more detailed pattern. And the good news is that just about every seamstress has sewing pins in their sewing supplies. So, there is no extra cost to use the pinning method.

This is the method I used the first time I cut out felt, and what I usually recommend in my felt patterns. But, you could use any of these methods for my felt patterns or other felt patterns.

Extra

And with all these techniques you’ll get a much cleaner cut if you’ll just take your time cutting out the felt. With intricate designs the best option is to go slow anyways and none of the extra steps in the techniques above take a long time.

There’s another technique that uses fusible interfacing, but I’ve never used that method. And all these methods will work for thick felt or thinner felt or if you have a small piece or a large piece you need to cut.