Applique basics
Applique cut allowance: how much larger than the placement line to cut the fabric
The number every tutorial leaves out: where the cut allowance comes from, the two ways it fails, an interactive calculator, and why 0.5–0.8 mm beats a fixed 1.5 mm.
6 min read · Published September 8, 2026
Every guide says "cut the fabric a little larger than the placement line". The machine-embroidery forums are full of people whose "a little" was wrong in one of two directions. This page gives the number and the reasoning, so you can set it for your fabric and your cutter instead of guessing.
What the allowance is
The placement run is the outline of the fabric piece as the digitiser intended it. The cut line is where the blade actually goes. The allowance is the distance from the placement line to the cut line, measured outward, perpendicular to the edge, the same everywhere along the shape.
An allowance of +0.7 mm on a 100 mm circle makes the fabric piece 101.4 mm across. It is not a percentage: a 30 mm heart also gets 0.7 mm, and the tips of a star get exactly as much as the flat sides.
The two ways it fails
Picture a cross-section through the satin border. The satin spans from its outer rail (on the garment) to its inner rail (on the fabric). The fabric edge sits somewhere in between.
- Edge too far in: raw edge shows. If the fabric edge ends up less than about 0.8 mm inside the satin's inner rail, the satin does not bite enough fabric. Under tension the raw edge lifts, fibres poke through the columns, and after a wash the piece frays free. This happens when the allowance is too small, the cut came out small, or the piece was placed a little off in one direction.
- Edge too far out: fabric past the satin. If the fabric edge extends beyond the satin's outer rail, you see a fringe of fabric outside the border. This happens when the allowance is too big, or the piece was placed off in the other direction.
Because placement error moves the whole piece in one direction, a piece that is off by 0.5 mm to the left is 0.5 mm too far out on the left edge and 0.5 mm too far in on the right edge at the same time. The allowance has to leave room on both sides.
The margins
Take a 4 mm satin: half-width 2 mm. Three things determine the room you have.
- d₁, the satin's inner-end depth. How far the inner end of each column sits inside the placement outline. On a straight edge of a 4 mm satin this is close to 2 mm. At a sharp tip the columns cannot go that deep without crossing, so d₁ drops, sometimes under 1 mm.
- Bite. The satin must catch at least 0.8 mm of fabric to hold it.
- Pull-in. Satin pulls the fabric in across its width: 0.25 mm on woven, 0.40 mm on knit, 0.15 mm on felt. The file compensates the outer rail by that amount, but assume 30 percent still shows, so the effective half-width shrinks by 0.08 to 0.12 mm.
With allowance b the two margins are:
- Inward margin = d₁ + b − 0.8 mm. How far the edge can drift inward before the raw edge shows.
- Outward margin = (half satin width − residual pull) − b. How far it can drift outward before fabric shows past the satin.
The allowance is balanced when the two margins are equal: b ≈ (half width + 0.8 − d₁) / 2. For a 4 mm satin on a straight edge (d₁ ≈ 1.9 mm) that gives b ≈ 0.45 mm and about 1.5 mm of margin in each direction. At a tip where d₁ is 1.2 mm, b rises to about 0.8 mm and the margin drops to 1.2 mm.
Allowance calculator
The studio measures d₁ for every satin column of your actual shape and runs 300 full trials, so its number is lower than this single-point estimate on shapes with tips.
How much error you are fighting
The margin only means something against the errors that eat it. These are the one-sigma values the studio uses, and where they come from:
Brother's own PE-Design 11 offers three cutting allowances when exporting to a ScanNCut: 0.0 mm "exact", 1.0 mm "standard cotton or felt", 2.0 mm "thick fabric". A manufacturer that tested in the field settling on 1.0 mm for a standard case is consistent with an error budget around 0.7 mm plus a bite requirement. Note that Brother's figure is an offset from the tack-down in their workflow, which already sits inside the outline, so it is not directly comparable to an offset from the placement line.
Why a fixed 1.5 mm is too much for most satin borders
Two popular guides recommend 1.5 mm (Hooping Station, for Embrilliance Essentials exports) and 1.6 mm (EmbroideryHooping's Cricut guide). Put 1.5 mm into the calculator with a 4 mm satin on woven cotton: the outward margin is 2.0 − 0.08 − 1.5 = 0.42 mm. Normal placement error alone is 0.5 mm one sigma. Roughly a third of pieces will show fabric past the satin on one side.
1.5 mm makes sense in two cases: a 6 mm satin (half-width 3 mm), or a blanket-stitch or raw-edge finish where the fabric is meant to show. For a 3 to 5 mm satin it trades a rare fray for a common fringe.
Our per-shape search runs 0.2 to 1.0 mm in 0.1 mm steps against 120 Monte Carlo trials each and keeps the best; on typical shapes with a 4 mm satin on woven cotton it lands between 0.5 and 0.8 mm. Sharp tips push it up, felt pulls it down.
Setting it for your situation
| Situation | Allowance for a 4 mm satin | Why | |---|---|---| | Woven cotton, Cricut or ScanNCut, spray adhesive | 0.5–0.7 mm | Balanced margins with the standard error budget | | Knit or sweatshirt fleece | 0.6–0.8 mm, satin 4.5–5 mm | Pull-in 0.40 mm eats outward margin; wider satin restores it | | Felt | 0.3–0.5 mm | Clean cut, no fray, low pull-in | | Sharp tips or thin details | 0.7–1.0 mm on that piece | Low d₁ at tips needs more inward margin | | Thick or loosely woven fabric | 0.8–1.2 mm, satin 5 mm | Edge is uneven; give the satin more to grab | | Trim in hoop | leave ≈ 1 mm outside the tack-down | The tack-down is ≈ 1.2 mm inside the outline, so this lands near +0 to −0.2 | | Blanket or E-stitch edge | 0 mm or slightly negative | The fabric edge is meant to be visible and straight |
Getting the offset into the cut file exactly
The offset is only useful if the cut file is at the same scale as the stitch file. Three things go wrong in practice:
- Unit-less SVGs in Cricut Design Space. Design Space assumes 72 pixels per inch for an SVG without physical units, while most editors export at 96. A 100 mm design imports at 133 mm. Export with width and height in inches or millimetres, or set the size manually after import. Our Cricut export writes inches. See Cricut applique.
- Percentage resizing of the placement line. Some tutorials enlarge the placement stitches by a few percent to create the cut line. That grows narrow features less than wide ones and does nothing for concave corners. Use a true offset.
- Offsetting from the wrong line. The tack-down is already 1.2 mm inside the outline. An allowance measured from it must be about 1.2 mm larger than one measured from the placement run. Know which line your software is offsetting.
Try it
Let the studio pick the allowance per shape
It measures d₁ for every satin column of your design, searches the allowance that maximises clean stitch-outs for your fabric and care, and writes the cut file at exactly that offset in real millimetres.
Sources
- Brother PE-Design 11 manual, "Exporting FCM files", cutting allowance presets.
- Hatch Embroidery online help, pull compensation defaults; Wilcom EmbroideryStudio fabric settings.
- Laser kerf measurements on fabric and felt (0.15–0.3 mm) from maker community tests; Cricut fabric cutting variance from user reports.
- Hooping Station and EmbroideryHooping Cricut applique guides, for the 1.5 and 1.6 mm recommendations discussed above.
Questions
Is the allowance the same as scaling the placement line by a percentage?
No. A percentage grows a 100 mm shape by 1 mm and a 30 mm shape by 0.3 mm, and it moves narrow features less than wide ones. The allowance is a fixed offset in millimetres, normal to the edge, the same everywhere.
What allowance for felt?
Less than for cotton, 0.3 to 0.5 mm. Felt does not fray, cuts cleanly and pulls in only about 0.15 mm under satin, so the outward margin is generous.
What if I trim in the hoop instead of pre-cutting?
Then the allowance is whatever you leave outside the tack-down, typically 1 mm, and the satin has to cover it. In-hoop trimming is less consistent than a cut file but forgiving on thick fabrics.
Do I need to change the allowance for a 5 mm satin?
It can go up slightly. With half the satin width at 2.5 mm instead of 2 mm, the outward margin grows by 0.5 mm, so a balanced allowance rises by about 0.25 mm.