Fabric Blade

I have been lurking for a while but just wanted to share my tips with cutting fabric.. I have been cutting out numbers and letters that I put on children's t-shirts. I have found for best results I iron on a type of interfacing with a paper backing then I spray my carrier sheet with spray glue- wait for it to go tacky. Then put the fabric face down on the carrier sheet. I then put strips of low tack masking tape on the back until the whole area is covered-this keeps everything in place!! I have been using the blue tip blade.. pressure -about 190. speed 25. Some fabrics need 2 cuts. I lower my overcut to about 15 and trailing blade to 18. (changes for type of image and material) Reverse the image you want to cut!! (as the fabric is face down) I have found it cuts through the tape like butter! the tape and backing paper just fall away! Sounds like lots of work but it is worth it for the ease of cutting! Now I have found out there is fabric blade -can't wait to try it!! Hope my ideas can help with people wanting to cut fabric!!

Another users' comments on the Fabric blade: "I bought some iron on backing from my Embroidery thread wholesaler as I had planned on doing a lot of cutting. The product is called Bemis Heat Seal. I ironed it on the back side of the fabric and with Sandy's suggestion of using a new sticky mat (and use it only for cutting fabric) I got my other new Circuit mat out, pressed the fabric with the ironed on backing on the mat, used a pressure of 300 and speed of 125 and did a few tests. They came out perfect. I also wanted to cut out shapes of dog heads that I have embroidered. For this I used their heavier product. I have not yet cut the adhesive out but I do not see where it will be a problem since it cut the other out. By being able to precut the shapes of the flowers, all I have to do is place them on the embroidered outline, press it with a tiny iron and embroider the satin edges. This saves a lot of fussy cutting and with the iron on there is no chance of the fabric pulling up if you trim to close to the set line. I just took one of the cutouts and ironed it onto cardstock and that also worked well. I am sure the new blade will do an even better job as I do have a few light fuzzies around the petals of the flower and it shows a tad on paper but it will be covered with the embroidery. This is really cool!! and getting very addictive. I hope this helps and gives you a few ideas."