Fabric Airplane Chain – Stash Buster!

Fabric Airplane Chain- Stash Buster!

First I am going to confess something that may not shock anyone, I am a fabric hoarder. Not shocked? Ok but here is the truth, I buy so much cute fabric for my little boys and then I have no idea what to make with it! They can only have so many quilts and blankets am I right? This fabric airplane chain is a great stash buster and it allows me to combine a bunch of adorable fabrics that I have been holding on to with no idea what to make!

Fabric Airplane Chain – Stash Buster!

I have been so excited to try out my new Silhouette on a fun fabric project. (You can do this project without the Silhouette but it will be a lot harder to cut by hand.)

Supplies: (Click each item to be taken there!)

Silhouette

Heavy Duty Iron on Adhesive Interfacing

Fabric

Airplane Cut File

The process for making these is fairly simple. It is time consuming but the finished product is adorable!

First we are going to cut our interfacing and fabric into 12″ squares. This is the size that fits on the silhouette cutting mat. You need to decide how many airplanes you want. Each 12″ square will fit 3 airplane links.

Take the number of squares that you are going to use for airplanes and iron your interfacing onto the wrong side of the fabric. (Do not iron interfacing onto the squares that are not going to be airplanes!) Place your fabric and cut your airplanes with your Silhouette.

For the remaining 12″ squares of fabric we are going to cut them into 4″ strips. Cut your interfacing into 2″ strips. You need to have the same number of interfacing strips as you have fabric strips.

Place your fabric strips right side down. Then place your interfacing strip on top. This interfacing only has one sticky side, place the sticky side face up.

You should have one inch of fabric on either side of the interfacing. Fold it over and press it onto the interfacing. I found it easier to do one side at a time but you have to be careful not to let the iron touch the interfacing that doesn’t have fabric on it! Iron all the strips to the interfacing until you have the desired number.

Now we have airplane strips and regular strips.

We are going to work with the airplanes first and then we will attach all the strips into a chain as the last step. Take a normal strip and fold it into a chain link. Then loop the airplane strip over the place where the ends of the first strip connect. Sew one strip along the airplane that will hold the airplane strip closed and the normal strip closed. See picture below.

Once you have attached all the airplanes to a chain in this fashion you are ready to attach the in between chains. I did an airplane chain every other chain but you could do them further apart, it is really a personal preference.

Continue on in this fashion to use all the strips you have made. You can add strips to make it as long as you want! This little one wouldn’t wait any longer he was so excited to get his hands on his fabric airplane chain!

What kind of fabric do you have to use up? Do you have a huge stash of unused fabric?