Plush P51-D Mustang: a Plane That Loves You Back

Ever had a plane person in your life? Someone who loves planes so much they wish they could have a plane with them all the time? Someone who wishes a plane would cling to them like a child to their parent's leg?

Today is their lucky day! Here is a sewing pattern for a P51-D Mustang with magnets in its wings that will hug them tight. The final plane wingspan is 31”, final length is 26.5”, and the magnet placement can be adjusted to accommodate different size adults. 

1. Custom ordered fabric (see instructions)
2. ¼” thick foam 
3. One sided fusible interfacing
4. Two sided fusible interfacing
5. Soft foam block for filling (optional)
6. Polyfill
7. 60x10x5mm neodymium magnets (could also use 60x15x5mm or 60x20x5mm for a stronger hold)
8. Xacto-style knife and cutting board
9. Sewing machine
10. Needle
11. Pins
12. Thread
13. Sewing scissors

1. Here are the diagrams of each piece on the plane and on the fabric. Refer back to these images to help orient yourself as you go.

Download the pattern “p51d_pattern.pdf”. When you open it, it should have two slides and look like the following. The nap of the fabric is from top to bottom on both slides.

1. As you make changes to the file, know that YOU WILL NOT CUT ON THE LINES. The lines are where you will sew, so you need to leave room to cut your own seam allowances outside of the lines. The current file leaves enough room for 1/4" to 3/8" seam allowances.
2. Open the file in Powerpoint or another editor.
3. Add the plane name, registration number, and squadron number. Edit the pattern file to customize the plane name and numbers. I used AmarilloUSAF (https://www.dafont.com/amarillo-usaf.font) size 200 for the squadron code (“JSN”), AmarilloUSAF size 70 for the tail number (“N70793”), and Painter (https://www.dafont.com/painter-2.font) size 90 for the name (“Lottie Otter”). These aren’t default fonts in PowerPoint, so if you want to use them you’ll have to install them manually (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/download-and-install-custom-fonts-to-use-with-office-0ee09e74-edc1-480c-81c2-5cf9537c70ce). Align the fonts vertically so the nap of the fabric is from top to bottom across the text for both sides of the plane. This will mean making text for one side read from the bottom to the top of the page and for the other reading from the top to the bottom of the slide. See the printed fabric picture in Order the Fabric. I reprinted the words to change their size, but the alignment is correct in the picture.
4. Adjust the colors for aesthetics or to help distinguish the guide lines. 
5. You can change the colors of the main (gray), contrast 1 (blue), and contrast 2 (red) colors to whatever colors you want for your plane. Make sure to change the colors of the piece outlines if you do this: you want outlines distinct enough that you’ll be able to see them to cut out pieces and sew along the lines, but subtle enough that if the pieces aren’t aligned perfectly you won’t see a distracting line. 
6. If you have trouble distinguishing different colors, I recommend increasing the contrast from what I used.

1. Feel free to order from any online custom fabric printer that you like. I ordered from Contrado (Soft velvet 8.2oz, Units: inch, Print Length: 46, Print Width: 55.9, Uneven scissor cut on the first slide. The second slide was only 23” long). I went with the soft velvet because it’s a nice balance of softness, not too much stretch, and a short pile (so the printed flaps are clearly visible). 
2. My fabric was broken into two pieces because of the length limitations of the printer I used. The second slide doesn’t need its own full piece: I fit it on a piece 23” long by 55.9” wide. If you want to be extra safe, you can include some extra blocks of the main, contrast 1, and contrast 2 below the second slide piece to give you extra fabric to work with if you need it. Assume that whatever you order will be all you have to work with, because even if you order exactly the same colors from the same printer, the colors often don’t match exactly.
3. MAKE SURE TO PREVIEW BEFORE ORDERING! It’s a large slide size with important pieces at the edges. The overhang in the slide represents the excess at the edges required when I placed my order. Make sure everything is fully included in your piece before buying!

NOTE: This was the order I placed and used for the body pieces, but I didn’t like the size of the squadron number, plane name, and tail numbers and reordered these pieces. The font sizes described in “Customize the Fabric” and the star and bars included in the pdf are sized correctly.

1. Cut out the following 9 blocks of pieces. When cutting these blocks out, make sure to stay far enough from any bordering pieces to leave a seam allowance around all pieces.

Example of some piece blocks

1. Iron on one-sided fusible interfacing to the back of each block of piece. Follow any specific instructions that came with your fusible interfacing (I used Pellon 807 Wonder Web). 
2. Cut out a piece slightly smaller than your fabric block so that the interfacing covers all pieces but does not stick out past the fabric (or it will melt to your surface).
3. Heat the iron to medium high.
4. Place the fabric face down, then the interfacing (dot side down), then a cover piece of fabric (i.e. a thin piece of cotton).
5. Spray the cover fabric with water until it is slightly damp.
6. Press the iron over part of the piece. Do not move the iron. Keep it in place for 10-15 seconds, then lift. The fabric should be dry and the interfacing attached to the fabric. Repeat until all areas of the interfacing have been fused, then repeat for all fabric blocks.

Do not move the iron when pressing!

1. Cut fabric: DO NOT CUT ON THE LINES! The lines are for sewing, so cut a buffer of your preferred seam allowance (typically ⅜” or ¼”) around each piece.
2. Cut out eight copies of piece 21a from ¼” foam. Do not leave a seam allowance.
3. Cut out four copies of piece 23 and two copies of piece 20 from ¼” foam. Leave a seam allowance on these.

Copying 21a to the ¼” foam. Cut 8 of these.

I found it easiest to sew on the lines when the lines were visible on both sides. Hold up the interfaced pieces against a window during daylight and trace over the sewing lines with a pencil so they can be seen when you are sewing on the wrong side.

Make sure all pieces are aligned with the nap from front to back. Sew along the marked lines.

*Press the seams open on the inside and press so the piece lies flat.

1. Sew the pieces 2a to 2b.* 

1. Sew both pairs of 3 to 4a.*

1. Cut notches in 4a and 4b. Pin and sew along the curve. Press the inside seams open.

1. Sew 2a to 3 on one side. Press open seam.

1. Cut notches in 5a, 5b, 9, and 10. Sew the inside curves between both sets of 5a and 9.* Sew the inside curve between 5b and 10.*

1. Cut notches in 11a and 11b. Sew along the curves. Flip inside out and press open seams.

1. Cut notches in 12 and 13. Sew each pair of pieces.*

1. Sew 12 to the bottom of 11a. At the back, 12 from one side will join 12 from the other. The seam should end just as 13 from each side meet. Press open seams.

1. Hand sew the 10/5b piece to the 9/5a pieces. To make sure the color changes exactly match, start sewing from the color change out to one edge, then from the color change out to the other edge. Press open seams.

1. Hand sew the 9/10 piece to the 13/12/11a/11b piece. Secure the corners of 10 to the corners of 11b, then the outside corner of 9 to the outside corner of 11a. Then hand sew across to join the pieces.

1. Sew 6 to 14 and join to 7 for both sides. Attach to 3/4a for both sides.*

1. Mark the flaps on the inside of the 21a and 21b wing pieces in pencil. The two 21a pieces will be on the top and bottom of the left wing. Sew the top seam, stopping before you round the outside. Open and press. Repeat for 21b.

1. Spray glue a strip of pale/neutral colored waste fabric (I used thin cotton) and the top side of two of the foam wing pieces. Have the foam pieces meet and apply the fabric to attach them, but do not cover the kick in the front of the wing. Repeat on the back side so that fabric strips are holding the front of the wing foam pieces together. 

1. Cut short pieces of the waste fabric. Spray glue the fabric and the outside of the foam at the kick in the front of the wing. Apply the strip and hold the back of the wings together as it dries to set a curve in the foam. Repeat on the inside of the wing. 

1. Hold the wing outline over the 21a shape and trace the extra gap at the kick in the wing on a folded over piece of foam. This will give you a small piece of foam the size needed to fill the gap. Cut out the foam, roll it, and spray glue waste fabric to hold it closed as previously. The small extra piece of foam will go fabric-side out in the front inside of the wing. 

1. Spray glue the small piece of foam in place with another scrap of waste fabric on top.

1. Repeat with another set of 21a foam pieces. For the remaining 21a foam pieces, only attach the front edges and the kick in the front of the wing, without filling in the extra front foam.

1. Press the outside edge of the 21a and 21b pieces. 

1. Lay the foam inside one of the plane wing fabric pieces, aligning the front of the foam with the fabric seam. Trace along the foam at the back, then cut off this extra foam.

1. Ladder stitch along the back edge of the plane, making sure to align the flaps between the front and back. Only sew along the straight line: do not close the tips of the wings.

1. Cut notches in 8b and 8a and sew the inside seams. Press open seams.

1. Cut a line diagonal to the corner on the tail side of the 4a pieces as below. Attach the corners of 8c to the front of each 4a slit. Then sew across to attach 8c. Press.

1. Align the slight kick in the side of 8a to the back of 8c. Mark where the front of 8b lies on 8c. 

1. Sew the front of 8b to the mark on 8c you made above. 8a/8b will fold over to create a scoop at the back of 8c.

1. Curl the seam allowance of 8a inside the scoop. Sew the outside line of 8a to the line of 8c on both sides, so the seam allowance for 8c is visible and the seam allowance for 8a is hidden.

1. Time to attach the wings! Align the front of the wing inside the front of the 4a slit. The wing with the star and bars goes on the left. 

1. Start hand sewing at the seam of the wing and the inside of the 4a slit. Sew across to attach the top of the wing to 7. Only sew on one wing for now.

1. Align the two wings so the foam touches across the center of the body. If necessary, add more foam in the center so the sewing lines on the inside of the two wings are about 2.5” apart. Sew laces across the top and bottom of the wings to hold them this distance apart. There should be enough foam between the wings that you have to pull taut on the laces and the plane wings hold themselves out. 

1. Cut chunks of foam to the following measurements. If you don’t have a large block of soft foam, you can also roll ¼” foam and sew through it to hold it in the correct dimensions.

Back: 4.5” x 3” x 2.5”

Middle: 6” x 4” x 2.5”

Front: 6.5” x 3.5” x 2.5”

1. Put the front piece of foam in the front of the plane (looking down from the top, the front will be 2.5” wide and 6.5” long). Ladder stitch along the final seam to keep it in place. 

1. Sew the top of the other wing to 7. Insert the middle foam above the wings (looking down from the top, the middle section will be 2.5” wide and 6” long). Ladder stitch the bottom of the wing to 8c on each side. Start sewing from the front of the wing and make sure to pull the stitches extra tight to close any gap.

1. Attach the foam pieces to the fabric pieces for the 4 sets of 23. I carefully used two sided interfacing between the foam and the fabric and pressed through the fabric side (covered by a cotton layer) to minimize detachments, but be careful not to melt the foam. You could also glue them with spray glue. Shave the edges of the foam within the seam allowance. 

1. Put the two pairs of piece 23 together. Hand sew along the line. Cut notches on the curves. Turn inside out.

1. Attach piece 20 to its foam the same way (I used two sided interfacing, but you could also spray glue them). Sew together along the lines. Cut notches along the curves. Turn inside out.

1. Place the two 17s back to back and sew along the top line. Turn inside out.

1. Cut a slit for the tail wing to the front corner. Sew piece 23 into piece 17 on each side, making sure the piece outline for 17 is aligned with the back seam of 23 and the front slit of 17 is aligned with the front seam of 23.

1. Sew piece 18 to the bottom of piece 23. The back corner of the piece outline should meet the back seam of 23. Sew 18 across piece 23, then to piece 17.

1. Repeat to attach the tail wing and piece 18 on the other side. Add some stitches across the two tail wing pieces to hold them out from each other.

1. Sew piece 15 to the back of the 12/13 junction. Sew piece 15 to piece 14 on each side. Press open seams.

1. Now we’re going to attach the tail piece. If there is extra fabric from piece 15 or 14, we’ll sew straight across the shortest piece to work in a straight line across all pieces. Sew piece 18/17 to 15/14. 

1. Sew 19a to 19b. Press seams open.

1. Fill the 8a/8b/8b scoop with polyfill. Sew 19a to the back of this scoop piece (8a/8b)

1. Ladder stitch to attach 19a to 14 and 7. Fold 7 diagonally from its back corner (at the intersection of 14) to where it attaches to the back of the plane wing (21a or 21b) and ladder stitch 19a along this line.

1. When piece 19a meets 7 at the wing, add extra stitches to pull the fabric pieces together. Pull tight to close the gap!

1. Insert the back foam (looking from the top, it is 2.5” wide and 4.5” long). Repeat the ladder stitching along 19a with 14 and 7 on the other side.

1. Ladder stitch the seams along 19b and 18 on each side. Stuff the tail (piece 17) with polyfill. If necessary, stuff polyfill in any other gaps with a pencil.

1. Sew the tail piece 20 on the back of 17. This can be done by holding together the right side of the pieces and sewing through on one side, then turning the seam allowance to the inside of 20 and ladder stitching on the second side.

1. Sew two pairs of nose pieces (1) along an edge, then sew these pairs together along the remaining edge to make the nose. Add notches.

1. Flip the nose piece inside out, stuff with polyfill, and ladder stitch to the front of the plane.

1. At this point, the plane should be complete except for the wing tips and the lettering. Place two neodymium magnets upright in the end of each wing, nestled in the foam. These magnets are very strong and very brittle, so be careful when handling them. Make sure that the magnets attract through the fabric when the wings wrap around you. For an adult man, I placed the magnets at the end of the wings, about 0.5” inside the end of the foam. If you have a smaller neck, you can move them closer. When you are satisfied with the magnet placement and that the magnets attract when wrapped around you, glue the magnet stack to the foam on one side. Mattress stitch the wing tips closed.

Cut out the lettering and star and bars with an Xacto-style knife on a cutting board. Super glue them to the sides of the plane.

And just like that, your new plane is born!

Your new plane will be bursting with energy, so it's best to have activities lined up. Here are some ideas to get you started.

Fly with friends:

Learn new landings:

Take a trip to an airshow:

Travel the world: