# Cutting Fabric with Vinyl Cutter



## Countryangel6177 (Apr 14, 2011)

Has anyone been sucsseful cutting fabric with a vinyl cutter? Im trying to cut out some letters with my cutter and Im not sure how to go about it. I have a graphtec!! Please help


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

A roll fed cutter with a servo motor can do it. That's how twill is cut. You will need to use fabric with some type of backing; like what vinyl has.


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## jean518 (Sep 23, 2009)

Use Steam a Seam, wonder under, therma bond backing such as is used for applique. Available at all fabric stores. If you have a roll feed cutter, get a Cricut cutting mat to adhere the fabric to. Apply the backing to the fabric per instructions. Remove the paper and stick the fabric to the cricut cutting mat. You will have to play with pressure and blade depth settings. Do not try to do an intricate design.


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## Countryangel6177 (Apr 14, 2011)

Yall Rock!! Thanks for the tips! I needed them!


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## Nick Horvath (Feb 26, 2010)

Also some machines require a special blade to get the best cut when cutting Twill. For instance the Roland GX-24 has a Twill Blade.


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## scuba_steve2699 (Nov 15, 2006)

If you use a twill blade, make sure to change the offset for it or your cuts will not complete.


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## lrhoades (Jun 15, 2009)

Is there another type of backing I can use to feed through the vinyl cutter?


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## jean518 (Sep 23, 2009)

I bought a cricut cutting mat that has adhesive on it. I stick the fabric to it. It is fine for small pieces. If you are wanting to do large production runs, then this may not be practical for you. They make a couple sizes. I bought the smaller one first to see if it works. I did get it to work. Takes a little playing to dial in the settings for your cutter. Had issues with small detail areas.


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## lrhoades (Jun 15, 2009)

Thank you. I'll try that.


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## Corel Whisperer (Sep 1, 2010)

lrhoades said:


> Is there another type of backing I can use to feed through the vinyl cutter?


 You can use magic mask!


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## lrhoades (Jun 15, 2009)

Magic Mask is what I tried this weekend. It works well to hold the fabric, but when I remove the applique the hold is so tight it is easy to stretch the applique. Thank you


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## cyrius (Dec 12, 2015)

Hi guys, can you please make som advice about magic mask alternative in Europe. Thank you very much!


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## HamiltonArtists (Apr 16, 2013)

jean518 said:


> Use Steam a Seam, wonder under, therma bond backing such as is used for applique. Available at all fabric stores. If you have a roll feed cutter, get a Cricut cutting mat to adhere the fabric to. Apply the backing to the fabric per instructions. Remove the paper and stick the fabric to the cricut cutting mat. You will have to play with pressure and blade depth settings. Do not try to do an intricate design.


I tried this and could not get it to work I must be missing a setting or something


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## webtrekker (Jan 28, 2018)

I don't cut fabrics in my cutter but if I was to attempt this I'd probably use a blade with a shallow angle (30 deg), a very tacky mat, and I'd spray the workpiece with starch to stiffen it for easier cutting. The starch would wash out later on.


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## tfalk (Apr 3, 2008)

I cut fabric for a few years on a KNK Zing - was never completely happy with the results. The Zing died recently and was replaced with a Brother Scan-n-cut - dramatically better cutting. I find the best way is to adhere wonder under to the fabric, put the fabric face down on a tack sheet and cut the design in reverse. For twill, we put the carrier or glue side down and cut normal instead of reversed. Very clean edges and precise cuts. We can cut twill on our Roland GS24 but I try to keep that for just vinyl instead and use the Scan-n-cut for everything else.

The other advantage of the scan-n-cut is we use it for greek letter appliques - I have an Accucut die cutter and with this I can cut the shapes on the die cutter, scan them in on the scan-n-cut and create SVG files which I then bring into my embroidery software and create the stitch files to match.


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## ScreamingMimi (Oct 2, 2018)

If you do a Google search on "cutting fabrc with silhouette or cricut" you'll f9nd a ton of tutorials and videos. That should give you some tips that you can modify for your situation.

If your mat is too sticky (as mine is for fabric or paper) place a piece of contact paper sticky side up on the mat, and then place your fabric on that.


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