Using a die cutting machine for textiles

This month my textile group was experimenting with a die cut machine for textiles. I own a 10 year old Cuttlebug machine but got to try out a big shot. If I was buying a new one I would probably get a big shot as it is larger and more stable than the Cuttlebug. Either machine will cut fabric.

We used the machines to cut different fabrics, emboss a variety of items and generally play around. It was a lot of fun. I found that it cut fabric better if I laid a piece of paper on the top of the fabric. Some thin fabrics needed a bit of extra card in the sandwich to make the die cut all the way through. This will make sense if you have a machine.

Different fabrics I tried were sheers, leather, felt, silk and cottons. Other items I cut were: metal shims, drink cans, foils, cellophane and foam.
Some of the items I embossed with the machine were: thin metals, drink cans, plastic folders, leather, cellophane (didn't work), lurex type of fabric, fabric that had iron on vinyl on the back, foam, vinyl and paper.

At the end of the day I had a variety of samples and thought I needed to do something with them so I would have a record of what we did. As always I made a couple of pages for future fabric art journals. This first page has a lot of the flowers I cut out. I added some purple metallic cellophane (gift wrap) that has been ironed to make bubbles as well. I did try to emboss it but it didn't work so I melted it instead.

This page has an embossed flower image for the focal point. I embossed the flowers on metal tape then used Prisme fantasy paints for colour. I think there are a lot of possibilities with this technique.