This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.
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There is no denying that my crafting game totally changed when I got my Cricut Maker. I took my crafts to a whole new level.
I could probably go on for days about how much I love my Cricut Maker, but I will narrow it down to my 5 top reasons.
Number One – Versatility
There are so many different ways you can use your Cricut Maker. You’re not just limited to paper cut crafts, the Cricut Maker has the ability to cut a wide range of materials from paper, vinyl, leather, basswood, chipboard and even fabric. It even has the ability to emboss and engrave with it’s latest tools.
Aside from making all kinds of printed t shirts for the boy, I’ve been able to use it make earrings, embossed bookmarks and now even pillow cases. But I’ll get to that one in a moment.
Number Two – Easy to Use
The Cricut Maker is very easy to use. With the help of Cricut Design Space, you can make all your crafts come to life. There are so many tools within the program to help you create where ever your imagination takes you. When I got my Cricut Maker, it came with the materials to make a couple of small crafts to get you familiar with the machine which definitely helped me get comfortable with the machine from the start.
And it has smart technology built in to help you ensure you using the correct cutting blade based on the material you are cutting. This has saved me so many times.
Number Three – Constantly Introducing New Tools
Cricut is always introducing new tools to use with your Cricut Maker. Just recently they introduced several new tools to help me with some projects I had swirling around in my head. Now, not only can you cut but you can emboss and engrave items with these tools.
Number Four – Ability to use Cricut Access
If you don’t have Cricut Access to use with you Cricut Maker, you’re missing out on so many ideas and tools. Having Cricut Access allows you to use all it’s available fonts and images and links to hundreds and hundreds of project ideas. This has been great when I had an idea for a project and new my Cricut Maker had the ability to do it, I just wasn’t sure how to do it. And with access to more than standard fonts and images, I can add so much more creativity to my projects.
Number Five – Ability to Cut Fabric
I left the best to last. One of my favorite things that the Cricut Maker can do is cut fabric. I don’t know about you but I can not cut fabric with a pair of scissors without it looking completely butchered. So having the ability to cut fabric on the Cricut Maker thrilled me. I understand I am limited to the size of items that I can cut, but being able to cut smaller items with straight edges and perfect corners is definitely something that I will put to good use. I couldn’t cut a square to save my life with a regular pair of scissors.
So with that being said, I put the fabric cutting ability of the Cricut Maker to good use by making slip covers for my couch pillows and thanks to it cutting the fabric strips for me, it was super easy and came together beautifully.
Cricut Maker Made Pillow Cases
Supplies needed:
- Cricut Maker
- Fabric Grip Mat
- Fabric – I used Cricut Designer Fabric Sampler, High Adventure 2
- Pillows
- Sewing Machine
I’m sure a lot of people will look at this project and think they could easily pull it together without using any sort of machine to help them out. But for me, using my Cricut Maker allowed me to ensure I was cutting straight and properly measured pieces each and every time. Wanting to have the stripes all equal was vital for this project to turn out.
My pillows were 20 inches x 20 inches. I wanted to use 5 different strips of fabric so I created a rectangular pattern piece in Design Space that was 5 inches by 21 inches. The end result would be 4 inch stripes having a 1/2 inch seam allowance on each side.
I used the Cricut Maker to cut out 2 stripes of each colour for each of the pillows. I sewed the stripes together to make each side of the pillow.
One tip: The Cricut EasyPress Mini came in very handy to iron all the seams down to that everything laid flat when working with all the pieces.
After both sides were complete I put them together with the completed sides together and sewed around 3 sides to make a pocket to pull the pillow into.
After the pocket has been sewn, turn it inside out so that the seams are all inside and insert the pillow filling.
Once the pillow filling has been put inside, I used the Cricut EasyPress Mini again to fold the seams on the open side inwards so that they would be easier to work with. After, with the seams inward, I sewed up the final edge to complete the pillows.
Again, it was a super easy project but it really makes a huge difference in my living room.
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