As a child I used to LOVE counting down and my favorite thing to do was make countdown links. I drove my mom crazy with these long chains draped across the house but like any good mom, she didn’t complain about it. I wanted to pass the tradition down to my girls but wanted a cuter way to countdown…maybe something that wouldn’t be too much of an eye sore and blended in with our decor. Not to mention environmentally friendly! So I decided we would create links out of fabric and be able to reuse them again and again!

I didn’t want this to be a daunting project that took a long time to create because you have to make a bunch. And since I adore all things shabby chic, I decided I really loved the look of the unfinished edge of the fabric. It gave it the crafty feel I was going for plus it didn’t take no time to sew. I call that a win-win!

Here’s what you will need:

several coordinating fabrics –  I chose black, red, and yellow since we’re counting down to a Disney trip and I plan to reuse all of them for future countdowns

stiff interfacing – I used “Sew Lazy Face It Firm Interfacing” but any stiff interfacing should work just fine

peel and stick velcro

I will go through step by step on how to make one link.

First, you will need to grab one of your fabrics and cut 2 strips, each one needs to be 1.5″X10″

Next you will cut one strip of your interfacing sized at 1″X9″

You will now have 3 strips – 2 fabric strips and 1 interfacing strip.

Sandwich your interfacing between the 2 strips of fabric, right sides out.

Sew around all four sides of your fabric using a 1/8″ sew allowance. You shouldn’t be catching the interfacing in your stitch.

Now that you have sewn around all the sides, you will want to cut a small square (a little smaller than 1″) of your velcro

Attach Velcro pieces on opposite ends of your strip and on opposite sides from each other like this:

Congrats! You’ve made a link!

Now just repeat the process and make several links from your coordinating fabrics and voila! You and your kids are ready for a good ol’ countdown!