How To Make A Felted Wool Snowflake

Brother Crafts Blogger

The ScanNCut machine has the ability to cut a wide variety of materials – some that even you may be surprised by! Today, we wanted to share with our friends a holiday-project we created with the ScanNCut machine using felted wool fabric. Yes, that’s right. We said felted wool! This felted wool fabric (thinner than traditional felted wool, yet still substantial) cuts wonderfully with the ScanNCut machine. As always, remember that the key to working with different materials is to find the balance of settings that works best for your material. When cutting fabrics, it’s best to start off with the standard cutting blade when testing the settings for your material. For this particular material, we set the standard blade depth at “9” and internal settings of cut speed set to “1” and blade pressure set to “6."

To start off, simply select a design from your machine. (Tip: Since the material is fibrous, it’s best to refrain from cutting small designs.) There are a few snowflake design options within the “Nature” category of your machine’s built-in designs. We decided to go with a simple snowflake design for this particular project. Since the snowflake cut out will be used to create an ornament, we decided to size the design to "2 1/2" wide.

Because this particular fabric is rather thick, it is best to press it into a clean mat that has the fabric support sheet already applied to it. We also found that it’s best to use a brayer or simply the force of your hand to secure the wool onto your mat. (Note: The felt will leave a residue on your mat that can easily be cleaned up with unscented alcohol-free baby wipes.)

It’s now time to cut your snowflake. If you are using a remnant fabric, you can always use the “Background Scan” function to see exactly where you will be cutting your design from the fabric.

In order to create this beautiful project, take two snowflakes that have been cut to the same size and use a blanket hand stitch to bind the two together with white embroidery thread. Once this is done, simply add your favorite embellishment to the center to fill the empty space. Cutting detailed images from felted wool fabric may be difficult at times. Letting the ScanNCut machine do the detailed work for you is just the perfect gift to give yourself!