Cutting Fabric Circles

The polkadot monogram series of patterns are filled with circles in many shapes and colors. While some of the samples have been created with buttons and beads or colored with markers, others have been made using cotton and felt. As a result, I have been getting a lot of experience cutting fabric circles!

In this post, I would like to share four methods for cutting circles from fabric.

Scissors

Cutting fabric circles with scissors might seem self-evident, but how do you get the correct circle size onto the fabric? The technique I use involves freezer paper.

I printed each circle size onto 8-1/2″x11″ freezer paper sheets, but you could also trace the circles onto freezer paper using a circle template or compass. The shiny side of freezer paper temporarily adheres to fabric with an iron, so you can press the freezer paper circle onto the fabric and follow the lines for cutting out the circle with scissors.

Circle Cutters

Compass-style circle cutters use fixed or rotary blades to cut perfect circles in a range of sizes. This Olfa CMP-3 circle cutter has an 18 mm rotary blade and can cut circles from 1-1/2 inches to 8-3/4 inches.

Hole Punches

Hole punch sets, like those designed for leather, are very useful for cutting small-size circles out of fabric. My set includes nine hole punches that cut circles from 1/8 inch to 1/2 inch.

Cutting Machines

Cutting machines are the ultimate luxury for cutting fabric circles. My Brother ScanNCut can easily be programmed to cut multiple circles in sizes from 1 mm to 100 mm. Simply choose the circle shape…

… and enter the size and quantity of circles to cut.

Multiple sizes and quantities of circles can be assembled together in one cutting group.

Then click OK and cut!

Hundreds of circles in no time!

These circles have been cut out of Apliquick interfacing to be used for a turned-edge appliqué polkadot monogram.