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Today I thought I would show you how to cut fabric on your Cameo machine and turn them into fun fabric flowers! You could put these on a headband, make them into a hair clip or embellish a card or scrapbook layout. Since you all know I have my own 'bowtique' business, consider this an inside tip ;) haha
**WARNING. This is a VERY HEAVY PIC UPLOADED blog post! I tried my best to really walk you through every step**
This is Julianne modeling the headband I made her. Adorable right?? ;)
I haven't done a tutorial in a VERY long time so bear with me as I do my best to explain and get back into it! I am going to try to include lots of pics so that you can see each step. As usual, if you have any questions or requests feel free to leave me a comment! :)
First step you wanna do is open up your Silhouette software and go to your library and search for 'Scallop circles'. If you don't already have it, you will have to download it from the store. (Atleast the file i'm using).
I am working with the 4 scallop file, but only using ONE of the patterns. I will show you how to delete the others so you are left with one scallop circle. Open up the file and you are going to LEFT click on the image and click on ungroup. This will then seperate each pattern, giving it an individual box and you are now free to delete each.
Now that you have deleted all the other images and are left with the one scallop, you are free to place it wherever you want on your mat. For a larger flower, we are going to size to 2.5x2.5 so you will need to have your scallop highlighted, open up your scale window and adjust the size. (Sorry for the placement, blogger is acting up on me!)
Once you have it sized, I usually go to the page link and change my page size to 8.5x11 because I rarely cut a 12x12 piece of cardstock. Your next step is to go to the 'Replicate box' (it looks like a butterfly) and add more scallops and place them on your mat :) I usually click on the replicate right and replicate below to fill up my mat.
This is how your mat should look. You should be able to fit 12 scallops into the page and you are more than able to leave it at that or go back to the instructions I gave you and cut some more once you are done cutting these. I will show you how to get your fabric ready to cut next :)
Ok. first off, excuse the dirty mat and messy desk. This is where I make my bows and it's seen LOTS of hot glue lol ;)
Your next step is to cut an 8.5x11 piece of fabric. You can either use the rotary cutters (if you have some) or some fabric scissors :). I realized once I was cutting the no-sew 'heat n bond' that I didn't have enough for a full sheet of fabric so i'm using what is left :)
The Heat n Bond has TWO sides. One feels just like thin paper and the BACK side is super grainy and rough.
You are going to want to heat this bond to the back of your fabric with the grainy side down!
After you lay your heat n bond GRAINY SIDE DOWN (touching the wrong side of the fabric) you are going to place a sheet over it and iron it on. I would say roughly 20 seconds per area is good :) This is what it will look like once you are done ironing and it's done correctly
You want to LEAVE THE BACKING ON in order to cut it through with your Silhouette (these steps in preparing the fabric will also work on your Cricut as well).
Now I have placed it onto my mat and we are ready to cut!
You will go into your 'Silhouette Cut Settings and find 'Fabric Cotton' under the options. It will automatically set the settings for you and it will tell you for your blade to be at a 3. I HIGHLY recommend the fabric blade or if not, have a seperate regular blade JUST FOR FABRIC. Making hairbows and learning how to sew, I can tell you that if you cut paper with it the fabric will dull out your blade and your paper crafting will suffer. I am using a regular blade but it is for only fabric now ;)
After you have adjusted your blade and loaded your mat, press cut!
Once you are done cutting and remove them from your mat, this is what you are left with. (Obviously you will have more since I didn't have enough backing for all of my fabric.
Now remember, you still have the backing on the back so this is where you will peel off the heat n bond paper in the back. You WILL still be stuck with the clear adhesive but once you assemble your flowers it is not noticable ;)
The next step is to fold the scallop in half.
You will then fold it in half again.
This is what it should look like. A folded up fan ;)
Now you will need your needle and thread. You will place the corner onto the needle BUT DON'T PULL IT ALL THE WAY THROUGH YET. You are going to place the flower pieces on top of each other on the needle.
You will pierce your needle through the bottom corner and stack your folded scallops.
Continue stacking until you have them all stacked on the needle ;)
Now at this point you are going to pull your needle and thread through all of them (Be careful! Because of the heat n bond, it's a little tougher but manageable).
**Sorry for the horrible pic, I was working one handed;)**
Now you will pull and tie the thread. At this point it will start to look like a flower.
Snip the remaining thread and now you are free to adjust the petals and do whatever you want with it! :)
**Obviously mine isn't full because I didn't have enough petals but yours will be! :) I find it easiest to flatten one edge and adhere to an aligator clip or a headband :)
PHEW! What a long post! I hope I was able to explain this right! I would love to see your pictures of your own fabric flowers and I'd love for you to check out my facebook page at: www.facebook.com/juliesbowtique10
