How to Cut Your Felt Elements Symmetrically

How to Cut Felt Elements Symmetrically (So You Stop Trimming Forever) 🧵✂️

Have you ever been in the situation when you try to blanket stitch two felt elements together and then you need to trim after trim and trim because they are not symmetrical? They are not identical, and it adds up a lot of time when you try to finish your project. If you’ve been in this situation, this article is for you.

Hi, my name is Alyona. I’ve been sewing for as long as I can remember myself. Since I came to the UK, I became very interested in felt plush creation and kept going deeper into it.

I’m going to show you step by step how to cut all the elements for your project so they look symmetrical. When you sew them together, you won’t need to trim them. And if you want to practise this technique straight away without investing money, just grab my free felt toy pattern and try it immediately.

How I Used to Cut Before (And Why It Was Wasting My Time)

Before, I used to take the pattern, place it on the felt, and outline it around. By the way, I always outline using a black Rollerball Pen. I know some people use disappearing markers, some use chalk, but for me none of them worked well. I tried different blue pens and different quality pens, but in my opinion this one works best because you don’t need to outline multiple times. It draws properly from the first time. You just need to be careful and sometimes let it dry, otherwise you can make your felt dirty. Usually I outline, let it dry for 1-2 minutes, and only then start cutting.

If, for example, I needed two head elements or four legs, before I would take the pattern and outline it one, two, three, four times. Then I would start cutting around each shape separately using my Scissors. Obviously, when you cut around, sometimes you grab a little bit more, sometimes a little bit less, sometimes you go slightly beyond the border of the outline. When you try to place these elements together before blanket stitching, they don’t really fit each other. Some are slightly bigger, some smaller, and you end up trimming and wasting time.

The Technique That Makes Everything Identical

Later, when I got tired of this mess and constant trimming, I came up with a much easier solution. You take your pattern and outline only one element of each shape on your Soft Felt.

For example, if your pattern has a body shape, head shape and legs or paws, you outline only one element of each. All my patterns are labelled, so it is written how many elements of the body, head, ears or legs you need to cut. Let’s say the body needs two elements, the head needs two elements, and the legs need four elements. You outline one head, one body and one leg. Then you cut this first element around carefully. I prefer scissors that are not too long because they are easier to manipulate ✂️🙈.

Now you have your first base element 💪.

Pin, Cut, Repeat

Take your first cut element, for example the head, and place it back on the felt sheet. Pin it to the felt using Straight Head Pins. This is very important. I tested different pins, and when you use pins with a round bead head, it becomes uncomfortable when cutting, especially with small elements. You keep stumbling on the bubble. Straight head pins are shorter, the head is barely present, and when you cut, you almost don’t feel them.

After pinning, cut around the pinned element. Keep them pinned together. Now you have two identical head pieces. Do the same with the body.

For the legs, since you need four elements, you unpin the two identical pieces, stack them together again, pin them back to the felt sheet and cut once more. Now you have four identical legs, two identical body pieces and two identical head pieces. Because they were pinned while cutting, they are symmetrical and perfectly matching.

Technically, if you sew everything around, you will have one head, one body and two legs ready. If you want to stuff them, you stuff them. If you want to keep them flat, you keep them flat (It’s up to you).

Why Clean Borders Start With Pre-Cut

I remember when I started posting my creations on Facebook groups, people were contacting me and asking why my borders looked so clean. They were saying, “Your end result looks much cleaner than mine.” I was always telling them that perfect borders first depend on the pre-cut. Your pre-cut needs to be very precise and identical, or symmetrical as I love to say.

The second thing that affects the border is the stuffing and how you fill your toy. But without a clean, identical pre-cut, even the best blanket stitch won’t fix uneven edges.

This technique is not rocket science. It’s actually a very simple thing. But if you follow these steps, your felt creation will always come out fantastically beautiful, clean and looking professional and cute.

And If You Want to Explore More Materials

Felt is not the only material I use in my craft and DIY projects. I also like to use mirrored leather in many creations. If you are interested to know what holographic mirrored leather is and where to use it, go and read: What Is the Mirrored Leather and How to Use It.

I hope you enjoyed this article, and I’ll see you there. Bye.