Cutting out felt pieces for an activity book or plushie can be more difficult than it should. If you’re not using the right tool or technique, your felt could end up with frayed or fuzzy edges, instead of the clean, crisp edges you wanted.
So, how to cut felt? To cut felt, you can use fabric scissors, a rotary cutter, a utility knife, or a Cricut Maker. You’ll get best results with higher quality felt, such as 100% wool felt. The rotary cutter and Cricut Maker often have cleaner cuts compared to the scissors and utility knife.
There are many ways to cut felt, and each of them will work well if you’re using the right tools and techniques. In the article below, we’ll share all the details you need to cut felt.
Types Of Felt
Before you can start cutting, it’s important to know the different types of felt and understand how it can affect your project.
There are three main types of felt: 100% wool felt, blend felt, and synthetic felt such as felt made of acrylic, polyester, or even recycled water bottles.
100% wool felt is the most high-quality felt you can buy, so it will perform the best out of all the other felts on the list. However, 100% wool felt is also the most expensive, since it’s made with only wool, which is an expensive fiber.
You can go one step down in quality and get a blend felt, which includes part wool and part synthetic fibers such as rayon or polyester.
Blend felt works well and can make a good substitute if you can’t afford or can’t find any 100% wool felt. You still get some of that trademark wool softness, but it’s just blended with another type of fiber.
Finally, there’s synthetic felt. This is felt that’s made of a synthetic material. Acrylic is the most common, though you can also find polyester or recycled water bottle felt.
Synthetic felt is the lowest quality, but it’s also the cheapest. So if you’re crafting on a budget, it’s likely going to be your best option.
Felt also comes in different levels of stiffness, ranging from soft to stiff. The level of stiffness of your felt will also have an impact on how clean you can cut it and what tool will work best.
Supplies For Cutting Felt
There are many supplies you can use for cutting felt, and some of them will depend on what method you’re using. No matter what method, you’re going to need the following items:
- Felt (100% wool, blend, or synthetic)
- Cutting tool (fabric scissors, rotary cutter, utility knife, or Cricut Maker)
Then, depending on what tool and technique you use, you may also need some of these items:
- Cutting mat (for rotary cutter or utility knife)
- Rotary blade kit and felt for Cricut Maker (if using)
- Freezer paper (for scissors, rotary cutter, or utility knife)
- Pencil (for scissors, rotary cutter, or utility knife)
- Iron (for scissors, rotary cutter, or utility knife)
- Fabric marker (for scissors)
We noted above which methods you may need each of these items for, and in the sections below, you’ll get to see why each supply is important and how it’s used.
How To Cut Felt With Scissors
The key to cutting felt with scissors is to make sure you are using sharp fabric scissors. This should be a separate pair of scissors that you only use for fabrics and never use for paper.
Cutting paper can dull your blades and ruin them for fabrics, so be sure you have a pair of fabric scissors set aside for this. Your first step is to prepare your felt by transferring the pattern piece.
There are a few different methods you can try, explained in detail below:
- Using a fabric marker, trace your pattern piece onto your felt. You’ll have to cut the pattern piece out closely around the edges with a pair of regular scissors (not your fabric scissors) before you can trace it, that way you get the true shape. Once your pattern piece is cut out, lay it onto the felt and hold it in place while you trace around it with a dissolvable fabric marker.
- Pin the pattern piece to the fabric. For this method, you won’t cut closely around the pattern piece. Instead, you’ll leave a bit of an edge around the lines of the pattern. You’ll cut that edge off while you cut out the patter piece. This method only works for larger pattern pieces.
- Trace your pattern onto the matte size of the freezer paper with a pencil. Cut it out using paper scissors, then lay it waxy-side down onto your felt. Place a fabric piece on top of the freezer paper and iron over it, adhering the freezer paper to the felt.
With your pattern transferred by your preferred method, all that’s left to do is cut the felt!
Begin cutting slowly with your fabric scissors. Try to maintain long, smooth cuts rather than choppy, short cuts. Hold the felt with a steady hand to prevent any warping or misshapen cutting.
If you’re working with a tiny pattern piece that’s too small to pin and doesn’t work to trace or iron on with freezer paper, your best bet is to hold the pattern piece in place with a tight grip of your fingers and just cut it out.
You may also need to use smaller scissors, such as thread scissors, if the pattern piece is too small. See the below video from Miss Mouse Makes to watch the scissor cutting method in action.
How To Cut Felt With A Rotary Cutter
Rotary cutters can give you the ability to quickly and manually cut your felt, but offer the advantage of more often resulting in cleaner edges when compared to scissors.
To cut felt with a rotary cutter, follow the steps below:
- Prepare your felt with your pattern piece. For a rotary cutter, it works best to either pin the pattern to the felt or transfer it with freezer paper, per the instructions above.
- Lay your felt on a cutting mat. The cutting mat is important to protect your work surface from the rotary blade.
- Using your rotary blade, press gently and run it along the edges of your pattern piece. You may need to press more firmly if your felt is thicker, but often you only need gentle pressure.
- Once you’ve run the blade around the entire edge of the pattern piece, you’re done! Simply pull away the excess felt and your cut-out shape will remain.
When using a rotary cutter, it can be tempting to go faster, since it glides so smoothly across straight lines and around curved edges. However, it’s important to go slowly as you cut to avoid any accidental over-cutting or uneven edges.
If you’re only cutting felt strips and don’t need a pattern piece, you can simply line up the felt with the lines of your cutting mat and use a ruler to provide a stable straight edge while you cut.
How To Cut Felt With A Utility Knife
Sometimes, the felt is too thick or the pattern piece is too tricky to use with a rotary cutter. In these instances, you can still achieve clean cuts if you use a utility knife.
Remember that when using a utility knife, just like with a rotary cutter, you will need to place a cutting mat underneath your felt to prepare your work surface.
Cutting felt with a utility knife will work the same way as cutting felt with a rotary blade. The only difference is that instead of rolling the round blade around the edges of the pattern piece, you’ll make smooth, straight cuts with your utility knife.
You can still cut rounded or curved edges with a utility knife, as long as you go slowly and maneuver your hand to run around the curves smoothly.
If your felt is extra thick, it may require multiple shallow scores to cut all the way through. It’s important to do as many gentle, shallow scores as needed, as opposed to trying to force your blade to cut deeper than the felt will allow.
Trying to cut too deeply in one score can cause the felt to have frayed and fuzzy edges instead of clean edges.
To watch someone cutting felt with a rotary cutter and a utility knife, check out the video below from The Felt Store.
How To Cut Felt With A Cricut Maker
You can also cut felt with a Cricut Maker! These can be an expensive investment if you don’t already own one, so we recommend this method only if you currently have a Cricut Maker machine.
To cut felt with a Cricut Maker, follow the steps below:
- Program your pattern design into your Cricut Maker.
- Choose your settings, making sure that your Cricut is prepared to cut felt and you have selected the rotary blade tool. (Note: install the rotary blade tool prior to choosing this setting).
- Lay your felt piece on your Cricut mat, making sure the entire felt piece fits on the mat. Press firmly with your hands or a rolling tool to ensure the felt is securely adhered to the mat.
- Load your mat into the Cricut and get it started. The Cricut will begin to cut the pattern into your felt.
- When cutting is complete, remove the mat and begin to peel away the excess felt. If some of the felt is still connected at the cut edges, snip it with scissors.
And that’s it! The Cricut did all the cutting work for you. All you had to do was load the materials and choose the proper settings.
Check out this video from Avanti Morocha to watch someone cut multiple pieces and types of felt with their Cricut Maker.
Some people have cut felt with a Cricut Explore, but since you can’t use a rotary blade on a Cricut Explore, we don’t recommend this.
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