how to turn any silhouette/cutfile in to a stitched design

hi everyone

i’m here with a super special blog post!

as you know i am a big lover of hand stitching on layouts, i mean what’s not to love about it? BUT i have a fantastic tip for you today.

i’ve played around with making stitched layouts and have used stencils which i draw through and then poke holes then stitch, also drawing around plates, die cuts etc – BUT i was getting frustrated with feeling like i was just using fairly basic shapes sooooooooooo i made it a mission to simplify it a bit.

here’s the exciting part (some of you may already know this………. you can turn any yes ANY silhouette shape, or cut file from any other source and turn it in to a shape with the holes already ready YAYYYYYY, how fabulous is that?

ok, so to do it it’s very simple:

choose your image/cut file in the silhouette software and re size it to whatever you want it to be on your on screen mat, here is the design i chose

now most importantly click on it to highlight it this part is ESSENTIAL

click to send to your silhouette machine but you will need to change the settings on the right of the screen by clicking ADJUST CUT SETTINGS so as usual select the type of card/paper etc that you are using in the bottom section then in the middle section choose the third option down.

you will see that the image now looks kind of grey, when you see it on your screen it will have a dashed line look, don’t worry this is perfect – now the exciting bit – send to your silhouette YAY!

so it will run back and forth as usual and make it’s cut and then when it has finished you will see it has holes in for stitching. seriously how good is that??????

you will need to remember that too small a design will be very hard to stitch as you will tear your paper!

now here are some close ups of the layout i made – look how neat it can look:

and here is the full page

i am so chuffed and happy to share this tip with everyone, please subscribe and leave a comment or any questions for me, i love to hear from you all.

’til next time

C x