Rotary Cutter/Self Healing Mat Try-Outs
Ok, I didn't really have a try out for my first rotary cutter and self healing mat. I don't have that kind of money to buy a lot and pick my favorite. Honestly, I just went online and bought ones with decent reviews and a helluva sale price. You see, Joanns sent me an email saying all of their rotary cutters and mats were half off, so I had to jump on it. I had been wanting both a rotary cutter and a self healing mat for a while now. It was fate! I jumped online and looked around. I originally wanted the biggest self healing mat they had, but then I rethought it. Did I really need one that was 2 feet by 3 feet?! Where was I even going to put that thing?! So instead I went with a Fiskars 18" X 24" mat for $12. That can fit on my sewing desk and not be too comically large. It arrived in just a couple of days and it look exactly like the picture on the website. I did a test cut and it seemed to work very well. So far so good!
Next came the rotary cutter itself. I wanted one with a decent handle and a fairly common blade size, so if I decide that I like it and need more blades, they won't be hard to find. I also decided on a pressure sensitive cutter, so I wouldn't accidentally damage the exposed blade if it is just sitting out somewhere. The blade literally won't be exposed unless I am actually cutting with it. I chose a Dritz Pressure Sensitive 60mm cutter. It, too, looks like the picture online and also arrived fairly quickly.
Both items work very well and I am very pleased to use them both together. The only thing I dislike about the mat is that with my old cardboard one, I could just stick pins in the fabric and then into the board and the fabric wouldn't move while I was cutting it. So far it is kind of tricky to cut fabrics on the mat because I have to weigh them down with various objects in the sewing room instead of pinning the fabric to the mat, which just will not work. I might occasionally go back to the old cardboard once I have a larger sewing space to use it in. Its huge! It actually worked quite nicely for a while, but we were just running out of room on the floor to use it on. Plus, I really wanted to try a rotary cutter and you just can't use them on cardboard, unless you want to ruin the cardboard.
**It took me 5 months to finish this post because some of the last pictures of Peaches we have are when she was on my new rotary mat. I had all intentions of posting this sooner, but I just could not bring myself to finish it. So here it is now. Don't get me wrong, I love our 2 new idiot cats, but I miss Peachy.
Next came the rotary cutter itself. I wanted one with a decent handle and a fairly common blade size, so if I decide that I like it and need more blades, they won't be hard to find. I also decided on a pressure sensitive cutter, so I wouldn't accidentally damage the exposed blade if it is just sitting out somewhere. The blade literally won't be exposed unless I am actually cutting with it. I chose a Dritz Pressure Sensitive 60mm cutter. It, too, looks like the picture online and also arrived fairly quickly.
Both items work very well and I am very pleased to use them both together. The only thing I dislike about the mat is that with my old cardboard one, I could just stick pins in the fabric and then into the board and the fabric wouldn't move while I was cutting it. So far it is kind of tricky to cut fabrics on the mat because I have to weigh them down with various objects in the sewing room instead of pinning the fabric to the mat, which just will not work. I might occasionally go back to the old cardboard once I have a larger sewing space to use it in. Its huge! It actually worked quite nicely for a while, but we were just running out of room on the floor to use it on. Plus, I really wanted to try a rotary cutter and you just can't use them on cardboard, unless you want to ruin the cardboard.
**It took me 5 months to finish this post because some of the last pictures of Peaches we have are when she was on my new rotary mat. I had all intentions of posting this sooner, but I just could not bring myself to finish it. So here it is now. Don't get me wrong, I love our 2 new idiot cats, but I miss Peachy.
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