boogaloo: airplane applique

My youngest son saw me working away in my sewing room recently and asked if I would make him an airplane. More specifically - a jetplane.

We moved into our home a year and a half ago and I have yet to decorate the little guy's bedroom so I thought this would be a great opportunity to get to work on his airplane themed room that he I had hoped for.

His furniture and accessories are mostly dark blue so I hope to (one day) paint the walls a pale shade of gray. Sounds strange for a kids room but I think it would go so well with the blue and last beyond his preschool years.

The first thing you see when you enter his room are large plain white curtains covering the window so I figured this was a great starting point to decorate.

First, I drew a picture of an airplane and created a template from that.

I cut the template pieces out and traced them onto the smooth side of fusible interfacing (adding a little extra for a seam allowance). Then I cut the fabric and interfacing pieces out. I used 3 different shades of blue for the plane body, wings and tailpieces. Then a brown-ish colour for the two propeller pieces, and a pale neutral fabric for the cockpit.

I stitched the interfacing to the fabric pieces along the template line, with right sides together (or 'fusible' side in). I stitched all around the shape.

I cut a slit in the interfacing so that I could turn the piece right-side-out.

I repeated these steps for all the airplane parts. Then, I arranged them onto the curtain and ironed them in place with the fusible web facing down.

I was going to hand stitch the plane to the panel, but changed my mind at the last minute and top-stitched it with my machine instead.

I added a button between the two propellers and embroidered a few little extra details by hand.

Please note: If you have a little airplane enthusiast at home and want to try this, I would recommend using the two-sided Heat N Bond instead of interfacing (and cutting the pieces to the exact size). This would be much easier to work with and would save you a couple of steps along the way. The reason why I used interfacing was because I wanted the curtains to remain washable - it is after all a white curtain in a little boy's room!! BUT if I were to do it again - I would definitely use the Heat N Bond sheets to applique the plane and just hand wash the curtains from then on!