Cricut Imagine - Old & New Cartridges Working in Harmony - But Do They Cut Fabric Well??

I am into fabrics, and although I have a beautiful Accuquilt Studio die cutter that I LOVE, it lacked the flexibility for cutting a variety of applique designs that I desperately wanted to make.  So, I went on my journey for a new addition to my "family" of cutters and discovered the all new Cricut Imagine.  Wow, is this thing cool!


I've only scratched the surface on what it can do, but here are my first cuts:

Simple Cardstock Pumpkins

Pumpkins decorated with adhesive backed foam shapes.   Can you guess which two I made and which two my 3 year old son made?

Okay, so that wasn't much of a challenge.  The basic pumpkin shape on cardstock was no big deal.

Can this thing cut fabric??  Let's give it a whirl. 

The first attempt to cut fabric was using this fun striped hearts on pink background premium quilting fabric.  It was backed with Shades Soft Fuse fusible webbing, which is really nice for use in quilting appliques. 

How did it work?  TERRIBLY!  Ugh, what a disappointment.  I tried a couple of times (used more tape on the second try), and unfortunately  I forgot to take photos of the mangled messes of fabric that resulted.  Let's just say that I wouldn't recommend using it. 



My second attempt was using another premium quilting fabric that was backed with Steam-a-Seam Lite, another fusible web backing used for quilting applique projects. 

How did it work?  I'll let the photos speak for themselves:

 



I had chosen a basic cupcake shape and added just a splash of color (you can see the slight contrast between the cupcake and the original fabric in the last photo above).  I can't believe how beautifully this cut out the cupcake AND printed on the fabric! 

I was very impressed.  So, I cut something else. 

Please note that I used clear packaging tape to secure the fabrics to my cutting mat.  Although they held the fabric in place, I do NOT recommend them.  They were difficult to remove.  I have read that blue painter's tape works well, but I couldn't find mine (next time...). 

Here is my heart applique next to my cupcake (beautiful!):

So what about all these fancy mix and match functions?  For the shapes below I used an OLD Cricut Cartridge (Elmo's Party) and a NEW Cricut Imagine Cartridge (Best Friends).  The letters and musical note shapes came from the old cartridge and the background colors of each came from the new cartridge.  They were printed on plain white card stock. 

I LOVE the way they turned out!  I can't wait until I have time to play some more and come up with some really cool stuff.  More to come on that in a new post.