How to Cut Felt with Your Cricut

You grabbed a stack of felt, loaded your Cricut, hit cut — and ended up with a shredded mess instead of a clean flower petal.

Felt can absolutely be cut with a Cricut, but the type of felt you're using changes everything. Acrylic craft felt cuts cleanly on most machines, while wool felt needs the Maker and a rotary blade. Get the pairing right and you'll get crisp, clean cuts every single time.

Types of Felt and How They Cut

Not all felt behaves the same way under a blade. There are three main types you'll run into, and they each have a different personality when it comes to cutting.

Acrylic Craft Felt

This is the thin, soft stuff you find in big sheets at the craft store for around 50 cents each. It's made from synthetic polyester or acrylic fibres. It cuts well on both the Cricut Explore Air 2 and the Cricut Maker, using a fine-point blade. It's the easiest starting point if you're new to cutting felt.

Stiff Felt

Stiff felt has been treated with a stabilizer to give it more body. Think of it as acrylic felt's slightly firmer cousin. It also cuts fine with a fine-point blade on Explore or Maker machines. Because it doesn't stretch or shift as easily, it's actually a bit more forgiving on the mat.

Wool Felt and Wool Blend Felt

Wool felt is thicker, denser, and more expensive, usually $5–$15 per sheet depending on quality. A fine-point blade will drag and tear through it. You need the Cricut Maker and the rotary blade to cut wool felt cleanly. The rotary blade rolls through fibres instead of dragging, which is exactly what wool needs. If you're curious how it compares to other blade options, the Cricut Blade Types: Which One Do You Need? guide breaks down all your choices in one place.

Which Cricut Machine for Felt

Here's the short version:

• Cricut Explore Air 2 or Explore 3: Great for acrylic and stiff felt. Not suitable for wool felt.
• Cricut Maker or Maker 3: Handles acrylic, stiff, and wool felt. The rotary blade attachment makes it the most versatile option for felt work.
• Cricut Joy: Can cut thin acrylic felt in smaller sizes, but it's limited by mat width and blade options. Not ideal for felt projects.

If felt is going to be a regular part of your crafting, the Maker is worth it. Felt is honestly one of the materials where the upgrade pays for itself fast. For a full picture of what each machine can handle, check out What Materials Can a Cricut Cut? The Full List.

Best Blade and Settings

Blade Choice

• Acrylic and stiff felt: Fine-point blade works well.
• Wool and wool blend felt: Rotary blade on the Cricut Maker only.

Cut Settings

In Cricut Design Space, search for "felt" in the material settings and you'll find specific presets. For acrylic felt, the built-in felt setting typically sets pressure to around 300 and uses a single pass. For wool felt with the rotary blade, Design Space will dial in the right settings automatically once you select the correct material.

If your cuts are still ragged, bump the pressure up by 10–20 points and do a test cut on a scrap piece first. Slow the cut speed down too — somewhere in the range of 200–250 instead of the default 400 — especially on thicker felt. Slower passes reduce tearing significantly.

Keeping Felt Steady on the Mat

Felt is soft and fibrous, which means it loves to shift mid-cut. The right mat makes a real difference here.

Use the pink FabricGrip mat for felt. It has a stronger adhesive than the green StandardGrip mat, which keeps felt locked down through the entire cut. If you want to understand why each mat color exists, Cricut Mat Types Explained: Which Color Does What is a quick read that clears it up.

Beyond the mat, a few extra tricks help:

• Iron-on backing: Iron a piece of Heat 'n Bond or similar fusible interfacing to the back of your felt before cutting. This stabilizes the fibres and gives the blade a cleaner edge to cut through.
• Press firmly onto the mat: Use a brayer or your palm to press the felt flat before loading it into the machine.
• Don't peel felt off the mat fast: Roll the mat away from the felt rather than peeling the felt off the mat. Yanking felt causes it to stretch and distort.

Felt Project Ideas

Once you've got clean cuts, felt opens up a huge range of projects. Here are some of the most popular ones Cricut crafters make regularly:

• Felt flowers: Layered roses, dahlias, and succulents — usually cut from acrylic felt and rolled or glued into shape.
• Holiday ornaments: Christmas trees, snowflakes, and characters that can be stuffed and sewn or simply glued.
• Animal shapes: Foxes, owls, and woodland creatures are perennial favorites for kids' room decor and quiet books.
• Felt garlands: Pennant banners, seasonal shapes, and letter garlands for parties or nurseries.
• Appliqués: Stiff felt cut into letters or shapes and ironed or sewn onto clothing or tote bags.

Wool felt is especially nice for ornaments and flowers because the thicker material holds its shape without needing extra stabilizer. Acrylic felt is better for anything you need in bulk since it's cheap and cuts fast.

Keeping Your Blade Clean After Felt

Felt fibres are sneaky. They collect inside the blade housing and around the blade tip after just a few cuts. That buildup dulls the blade faster than almost any other material and causes dragging on your next project.

After every felt cutting session, pop the blade out of the housing and use a small brush or a dry lint roller to remove fibre debris. You can also poke the blade tip into a ball of aluminum foil 10–15 times to clear fibres and sharpen it slightly at the same time.

Don't skip this step. A clean blade is the single biggest factor in getting consistent cuts from session to session. If you're cutting felt weekly, plan on replacing your fine-point blade every 6–8 weeks rather than the typical 2–3 months you'd get from cleaner materials.

If you're looking for a smarter way to organize your SVG files for felt projects and everything else, Cuttabl is a design library tool built specifically for Cricut crafters who are tired of hunting through folders to find that one flower file.