Introducing the all-new Cricut Maker.

I recently attended an event in Salt Lake City with Cricut and was shocked when I ‘met’ the newest member of the Cricut family – the Cricut Maker (check out the video from the event).  The Cricut Maker is a digital cutting machine that can cut 100s of materials with its diverse tools. It uses the fine point and deep point blades as welll as a pen and scoring stylus from the Explore series of machines.  It also has an all new rotary blade and knife blade that can rotate in all directions with the new adaptive tool system (see the gears at the top of the blade housing).

Adaptive Tool System

The Cricut Explore has a new advanced system called the Adaptive Tool System that controls the direction and pressure of the blade.  This is perfect for matching the cut to the chosen material.  If cutting with an X-acto knife you would want the first cut to be lighter to score the material.  The next cuts to have more pressure and the last cut to be light for a clean cut on the finished edges.  This tool system is programmed to do exactly that – with 10X more cutting power.

– What materials can the Cricut Explore cut? See them all here –   

The Rotary Blade

The Cricut Maker is the best tool for anyone learning to sew because it cuts out and marks the patterns (with a washable ink pen) which makes it easy to see and follow the instructions.  Sewing projects will look cleaner because of the precise cuts that line up perfectly.

I personally love to sew, but feel like I can’t get into detailed projects because I don’t have the space or setup for a table to cut fabric on. I often wait until I am visiting my Grandma’s house to do projects because she has a huge craft room with a large table to store all her fabrics and a large work surface to layout projects, cut out patterns, pin the patterns to the fabric, and then cut the fabric.  This is the worst part of the process for me and I want to get to the sewing part as soon as possible.  When making a quilt I am willing to spend more to buy it in a kit so that the cutting is done for me, but this isn’t an option with projects I want to customize or smaller piece projects. 

The rotary blade is included with the machine and should be used with the pink fabric cutting mat.

The Knife Blade

Sewing Projects In Design Space

Cricut has teamed up with Riley Blake Fabrics and Simplicty patterns to provide fabricsin the Cricut materials shop and quilt and sewing patterns in design space.  There are also over 50 free patterns in design space designed just for the Cricut Maker.  The machine can mark the seam allowances, notations, and cut out the pieces all in one step. Set up your project, hit GO and grab yourself a treat while the machine does its work.

The Little Details

What you need: 
•Compatible computer or mobile device 
•Broadband Internet connection 

What do you think about the Cricut Maker? Will it change the way you craft, sew, or quilt?

The machine is available on Cricut and Amazon as well as in craft stores such as Michaels, Joann, Hobby Lobby, and will be available with a bundle October 3rd on HSN.

Other supplies you might be interested in: