Wednesday, July 11, 2012

DIY TeePee - Pinterest Challenge #4




Late last week I decided on my pinterest challenge project - a DIY teepee for Max's new big boy room. I pinned it to my 'Max's Big Boy Room' board on Pinterest a while back and this was the perfect excuse to get my butt into gear and make it.

This project was so much fun!! It was fun to plan, fun to make and it's so much fun to watch Max play in it. I love it!
 

It took me a full day to make (with lots of 'help' from Max) and for the moment it's sitting in Max's nursery. It will move into his new room when I finish getting it ready for him.

Before I jump into how I made it, here's my inspiration pin... Gorgeous right! You can see why I was inspired to make one :)

(link)

The tutorial on this website is great & I pretty much followed it for the most part. I did make a few little changes and found that I needed to do a few things differently. Although that may have come down to my lack of sewing skills more than anything else! The good news is, even if you are a complete novice on the sewing machine (like me) you will be able to make this. It was really simple.

Max and I started out with a quick trip to Master's & Spotlight to get what we needed.

Supplies:
  • 5 x 19mm dowel rods (180cm each) - $21.50
  • 4mm rope,  1 meter - $2.75
  • Queen size flat bed sheet - free 
  • 3.5m of bias tape - $9.50
  • Button - $1.90
Tools:
  • Power Drill
  • 5mm drill bit
  • pencil
  • tape measure
  • sticky tape
  • sandpaper
  • sewing machine and thread
  • sewing scissors


I'm not going to re-write the whole tutorial (head on over to My Poppet for that), I'm just going to give a bit of a run down of the process and note where I had to make any changes.

I started out by measuring and then drilling holes towards the top of each dowel. I used a 5mm drill bit and 4mm rope to make things a little easier for myself (the tutorial used 5mm for both), it probably didn't make a whole lot of difference, but it made sense to me! Oh and the holes did all line up, I just failed to line up the rods in any of the photos I took!

Max was really excited at this point. I'd shown him photos of the tee-pee on the computer and he was so happy that I was making one for him. He got out his own pencil and drill and 'helped' me drill the holes.









After I'd drilled all five holes I sanded down the rough edges and threaded through the rope.  I wrapped the rope around several times and then tied it off. Max and I took the frame into his room and set it up to see what it would look like. Max loved it!






With the easy part out of the way I took a break until it was time for Max's nap. I did try laying out the fabric and doing some measuring while he was still awake, but Max kept rolling around on the sheet and telling me that this would be his white tee-pee. Adorable, but not so easy to work with...

Once he was asleep I got back into it. I had a white sheet that I'd been hanging onto after the fitted sheet part of the set had been ripped. I decided to use it for now, but I might upgrade the fabric or stencil some kind of pattern onto it down the track. I haven't decided on the fabrics for Max's new room yet, so didn't want to spend money on something that might not work.

I gave the sheet a quick once over with the iron and then started measuring out my first panel. Seeing as all the panels were the same I only needed to measure out one, and then use that one as a template for the other 4 panels. It was here that I hit my first little (and I mean tiny) hurdle. The tutorial suggested that you cut out your panels according to this template:

Mine ended up looking more like this:


No biggie, but I did have a mini panic attack as I was cutting out the second panel and realised that I wouldn't fit all four in along the width of the sheet.





Once all the panels were cut out I started on the sewing. First up I sewed the binding and sweet little orange button & ties onto the door panel.



It was about here that I stopped taking photos. Once I got into the serious sewing side of things it took all my concentration not to sew my shirt to the tent.

I sewed each of the panels to the next one to create the tee-pee shape and then sewed in the tubes for the poles (go check out the tutorial to see what I'm talking about). After sewing the first tube I stopped to check if the pole would fit. It didn't and like the girls from the original post I needed to go back, unpick my seam and make mine a little wider. I ended up making each tube 1 1/4 inches rather than an inch.

I hemmed the whole thing up and then enlisted Sean's help to put the whole thing together. This was seriously the hardest part!! Even with the slightly bigger tubes it was still a tight fit to get each pole through the tube. Sean held the tee-pee frame upside down for me and I fitted the fabric tent to the frame.

After what seemed like forever it was finally done!! I set it up in Max's room and he was soooo thrilled with it. He climbed in and out of it and told me that he was a little bunny in his tee-pee. I'm not sure where the little bunny part came from, but it was cute so who was I to argue!







I did find that the sides of it were a little 'baggier' than I would have liked. If I end up using a new fabric I'll adjust the measurements to make up for this. If I don't change the fabric I might buy some new poles and drill the holes a little further up to make the base a little wider. I'm not to fazed though, I think it looks great and like I said before, Max loves it!

So there you have it, my diy tee-pee and it only took me a day!

Make sure you go and check out the projects that Katie, Sherry, Kate and Michelle have made. And make sure to check out all the other projects that have been linked up too. There are some seriously talented people out there in blog land!

Thanks for stopping by :)













Check out my previous pinterest challenge projects!


 



51 comments

  1. Tamsyn, this is seriously amazing! I bet Max loves it. It's like a room within a room. He is so fortunate to have such a creative momma! : )

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    1. Oh, thanks Brandi! You are so kind :) He does absolutely love it!

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  2. How adorable is this?! And he looks so happy in there,

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  3. Oh my! I love this! Someday Eli...Someday! You are so talented!

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    1. Oh, I can't imagine Eli as a toddler yet!! Thank you xx

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  4. I've said it so many times, but I just think you are amazing! I really do.

    He is so blessed to have such a clever mama x

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    1. Thanks so much Cherie, you are so sweet xx

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  5. Great job! Did you see how Katie made a tee pee too for the challenge? I like the blue ties that match your walls. And I love that picture of your little Max drilling with his toy drill. So cute! Thanks for your comments on my blog.

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    1. I did, thanks Christa! He really loves that drill :)

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  6. This is so stinkin' cute! I love it. And great tutorial, perfect!!!

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  7. Amazing Tamsyn! Love the orange button. Max looks adorable and so ready to have an epic game of hide and seek in his teepee!

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    1. Thanks Amber, he loves jumping in and out of it like a little bunny!!

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  8. great review, and good job with the project. I love when people tweak and adapt to suit themselves and their style.
    Do you mind if I share your link on facebook?
    x cinti

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    1. Thanks Cinti, I'm glad you like it :) I would love for you to share it xx

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  9. I love the detail of the blue binding and the orange button!! And oh do I have a sweet spot for puppy dogs sitting on fabric when you are trying to cut it!

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    1. Me too Ashley, Cooper (my dog) always seems to appear once Max has gone down for a nap :)

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  10. Fabulous job. Love the teepee. Your little man is sure to have hours of fun in their.

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  11. It turned out awesome! Can't wait to see what you do with his big boy room!

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    1. Thanks Jessica, I'm really excited about putting his new room together :)

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  12. What a fun project! We are expecting our first baby, a boy, in October. This would be so fun to make when he's a little older!

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    1. It was fun Andrea! Good luck with your baby boy xx

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  13. Oh, how cute! I love the detail in your binding and button. I also thought about using a pattern or different fabric than white, but I think that this looks so fresh! :)

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    1. Thanks Erin, I'm really glad I went with white too :)

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  14. Oh so cute! I love the bright color accents! Your guy is so cute :)

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  15. You made it great!!Really!! Love the button on the door panel!!And what an adorable little person you've got in there ;D Congrats!!

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    1. Merci, I think he's a bit of a cutie too ;)

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  16. What a little cutie! Calling himself a little bunny in a tee-pee! That makes me smile :) I LOVE that tee-pee! You did an amazing job!! I've been trying to think of some sort of little "fort" to make my daughter, and now I'm sold on the tee-pee idea! Adorable!

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    1. Thank you for your sweet comments :) I hope you do make one, they are so much fun!!

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    2. Alright I had to come by again to show this to my husband so he knows what he may be building in his future! :) While I'm at it I want to invite you to my link party I just started because you have to share this on my blog! Although I'm doing a throwback party where you share content that's a least a week old or more... so you might have to share one of your other awesome ideas and then come back next week to share this one! I would love to have you! http://www.hubbymademe.com/throwback-thursday-no-1/

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    3. Thanks Britni, I'll come over and check it out :)

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  17. It turned out amazing! Seriously, I can't believe how awesome it is! I would have loved to have that when I was little - actually, I still kind of want one now! :)

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    1. I know what you mean Sam, I've crawled in there a few times :)

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  18. wow! amazing! Where can I order one? looks amazing Tamsyn

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  19. You did such a great job Tamsyn, I love the colours you chose, looks fabulous!!!

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  20. This is so fun! I want to have one to play in! I would love for you to share it on my weekly linky party Blog Stalking Thursday. http://www.thecraftyblogstalker.com/2012/08/blog-stalking-thursday-54.html

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    1. Thanks Katie, I'll come by and check it out :)

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  21. Adorable! Where did you purchase the dowel rods?

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    1. Thanks!! I picked them up at Masters, which is an Aussie hardware store :)

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  22. hi! this is adorable!!! question! does it seem sturdy? i want to make one but i have 3 under 4 and they play rough and tumble.. i envision this structure collapsing!

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    1. Hi Stacie! It does collapse/fold down really easily... Max and his cousin Emmy love to fold it down and then use it as a giant weapon so it might not be perfect for your three :)

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  23. Hi Tamsyn. I just finished one for my little girls' Christmas present. I followed My Poppet tuturial too. Love it. Just one question for you - do you find the material slips off the poles when it is folded down? Mine looks great when erected, but I'm wondering if the 'tubes' for the poles are slightly too big. And if there is a quick fix to make the material more snug on the poles.

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