My First Cricut Maker Sewing Project

I recently purchased the Cricut Maker when HSN had the machine with knife blade and scoring wheels for the same price as the Cricut Maker alone.  I saw a challenge giveaway on the Face Book CricutMaker SewSpecial Group for some Riley Blake Fabric and decided it was time to pull it out of the box.  But what to make first?  

My niece recently turned 3 and one of her presents was her first doll.  She was so excited to play with the doll and wanted to change her clothes.  The first thing she asked for was pajamas.  Hey, I want to get into my PJ's first thing too!  So I got it!  I used a Simplicity pattern on the Cricut site and found the price reasonable.  Here is the doll dress on an American Girl Doll, Kit.

Setting up the machine was easy and quick.  Swapping blades was simple and quick too!  I loved how it cut and found some great articles on mat care everyone should read.  Forget everything you know about your other Cricut mats and your quilting self healing mats and read the article at Hey Let's Create Stuff here.  Here's the summary:

• Don't scrape the mat clean!  You will remove the adhesive.
• Thread on the mat is ok.
• Pick up your fabric off the mat with tweezers instead of your spatula or scrapper.
• Keep your hands off the mat because oils and dirt will lessen it's holding power.

I was so excited to get started that I couldn't wait to get a 12 x 24 pink mat.  I used the 12 x 12 pink mat that came with the machine for the collar, but needed the longer mat for the dress front and back pieces.  So, I tried a green mat and it worked.  You can use the green mat if you have no pink fabric mat, but paper fiber on your older mats will dull your blade, so ONLY use a new green mat if you have one or just make the trip to the store.  I could not find any information about why else you want to use the pink mat vs. the green mat.

I made a few changes to the Simplicity pattern instructions.  I added interfacing to the collar.  It wasn't needed and became a bit bulky because I fused before I cut, so both top and bottom layers had interfacing.  I also, can't find my manual with buttonhole instructions for my 1990's sewing machine and decided to just use velcro.

I had trouble viewing every page of my Simplicity pdf sewing instructions, but quitting Cricut Design Space and reopening the pdf resolved the problem.  I called the help desk and they told me to clear my cache and cookies but I got disconnected and wasn't sure how to do so.  Thankfully, closing and reopening resolved the problem quickly.  I like that I can just view the pdf on my computer and not print out the pattern and waste paper.  And I don't have to store patterns I want to reuse.  This makes me very happy too!

So, will I use my Cricut Maker in future sewing projects?  Yes, I would love to try a quilt and see how I like it for cutting blocks.  And I make sewing patterns, so the idea of using Design Space to make and sew things really appeals to me too!  And if this doll nightgown is a hit, there will be a bunch of Christmas sewing going on.  

I have already started working on my next Cricut Maker Project and I can't wait to use my knife blade for an Advent Calendar project.  I want to make a back to school teacher's good box with the scoring wheels...oh, if I could only find the time for all my ideas!