Product Review: Go! Baby

Sarah and I were very excited to take delivery of our Go! Baby Fabric Cutter today. We have seen these Fabric Die Cutting machines pop up on many of our favourite quilting blogs and are thrilled that Accuquilt has given us the opportunity to review the machine and to prepare some tutorials using the three dies that we have selected. Best of all, Accuquilt are going to give one of our lucky readers the opportunity to win their own Go! Baby – check back next week for more details.

In case you haven’t seen them around, the Go! Baby Fabric Cutter by Accuquilt is a portable fabric cutting system. You lay your fabric on the die, top with the cutting mat, turn the handle and it cuts the fabric for you. On the box it claims to be fast and accurate; easy to use; and safe and portable.When not in use, the machine folds up for easy storage.

Sarah and I are familiar with die cutting machines – we have a Cuttlebug that we use to cut and emboss paper; and we have a Cricut Expression that we have used to cut scrapbooking paper, card, and vinyl. We were interested to see how the Go! Baby measured up against the other cutting systems. It is a compact machine that cuts easily. It can cut up to 6 layers for quilting cottons, so it will really speed up the cutting time.

The machine retails for US $139 (they are available for $175 in Australia). The dies are extra and most range from US $16.99 – $59.99. There are currently 58 dies available for the Go! Baby cutter. The dies range up to 5 inches wide. If larger dies are required, you would need to use the larger Go! Fabric Cutter. Dies with curved pieces feature notches to assist with alignment during piecing, and many piecing dies feature dog eared corners to aid in alignment and pre-cutting.

In my day job, I work as an occupational therapist assisting people with disabilities. I can see that this machine would make cutting fabric easier for people who have reduced grip strength or function in one upper limb. The machine can be used one handed with accuracy, great for people who have difficulty manipulating the rotary cutter and ruler at the same time. It would also be useful for children/teens as it is safer to use that a rotary cutter and gives accurate results. The Go! Baby can be easily operated by either left or right handed operators.

We were allowed to select three dies for our machine. I selected the Circle Die (I still remember how long it took me to cut all the circles out of felt for my Confetti Pillow); Drunkards Path die – have always wanted to try this block and dislike cutting lots of curves by hand; and Sarah selected the Value Die which includes a 4 1/2 inch square, a 2 1/2 inch square, and two 2 1/2 inch half square triangles. Sarah is a beginner quilter and she thought this die would cut some of the basic shapes she is likely to use.

You can also get dies that cut strips and other basic shapes. I find that I can cut strips and squares easily with the rotary cutter so probably wouldn’t invest in these types of dies. For shapes with curves, I think it will be a great time saver and improve our accuracy. The cutter does generate a bit more wastage than cutting by rotary cutter or by hand. However, I will be using it mainly to cut up shapes for scrap quilts so am less concerned about the wastage.

 Of course, we have already put the cutter to good use. I have been busy cutting lots of felt circles for another project.

Pop back next week to see a tutorial using the Go! Baby Cutter. To find out more about Accuquilt and to get 22 Free Patterns, you can sign up here: