My Monday making: Children's Tee-Pee

I am planning to write this post for a very long time. I can literally say that this post took years to make!

If you follow my Pinterest account, a couple years ago I was mostly pinning tee-pees. I fall deeply in love with a couple of them! After seeing inspired by a few designs I started to sketch my very own tee-pee pattern. I wanted a tee-pee where my kids could actually be standing once inside, which actually does not happen with most designs I was finding. I will be summarising below the best way I can my process of sketching and making my tee-pee. 

Step 1: Sketch your pattern

You will need to carefully design a tee-pee that better fits you needs, weight in the space you have available, and the overall use that you wish to give your tee-pee. Do you want your kids to play with your tee-pee outside? Do you have a lot of space available? Overall the use and size of your tee-pee  will impact the fabrics selection  and how much you will need to purchase.  You don't want  having to return to store and find your fabric gone if you purchase less fabric. Or you don't want to purchase fabric that will not last not even a few hours of play!

The conception of my pattern was not that difficult, particularly as there is a world of tee-pees out there to feed your imagination! I loved this one, also love the gift to illustrate the tee-pee too!  However,  thinking about the assembly and actually sowing and merging the pieces together was! The amount of fabric use is tremendous and actually sowing the pieces together can be quite difficult,  particularly towards the end. Just the sheer amount of fabric is huge!  I also decided to use contrasting fabrics for the tee-pee, so I ended up cutting and sowing together many pieces. The end result is beautiful, but it was very time consuming (adding that I do not use my sowing machine that much!) 

My tee-pee is actually quite high... And can make it higher given that I am using really long dowels so I can slide the tent and make the tee-pee higher, even if I leave empty space closer to the floor.

Step 2: Gather and purchase your materials

The dowels I purchased are the longest I could find, 2,40 meters, with 18mm diameter, I purchased these at my local B&Q store. The fabric selection was my favorite part. Who does not enjoy fabric shopping? My tee-pee was intended to be used both outdoors and indoors, so I knew that the fabric needed to be quite strong, otherwise even if I had a beautiful teepee, it would not last long, particularly if I used cotton fabric. So I chose upholster fabrics from my local Dunelm store. They were having a sale at the time, so I took the chance to buy fabrics at a cheaper price. These were picked by my kids since in the end the tee-pee would be used by them, so I allowed them to choose the fabric pattern. My oldest was at the time in a 'planet and universe' stage so he picked a space themed fabric and a contrasting stary one too. Altogether, between the two different fabrics I purchased around 7m.  I also purchased a lot of white rope. This would be used both for the entrance of my tee-pee as to tie in the dowels in step 4.

Note: If you will use my sketch as a model, you will have to add seem allowance to your measurements.

Step 3: Cut and Sew your tee-pee 

I cut 4 dowels sleeves, 5 large side pieces (2 were the tee-pee entrance, as the picture below shows) and 4 top smaller pieces. I began by sowing together the two pieces of the contrasting fabric for the generic tee-pee side, so I would have a whole side. I did this for the three tee-pee sides. For the entrance I had to sow together three pieces, as two pieces of fabric have to slide open to enter the tee-pee. You could the entrance differently, as a beautiful mess shows.  Its all up to your imagination! For the entrance  I also added a rope that can tie in place the tee-pee entrance, which will keep the entryway open:

After having the sides ready, you have to sew together two sides, alongside the pre-cut dowel sleeve. Before stitching the three pieces using the sowing machine, I cobbled using the actually dowel as a model. You have to make sure that the dowel can actually slide in. Otherwise you may find yourself having to unpick your work when discover that the dowel does not slide in. Yes, that happened to me...

Once you have two sides stitched together, you just add another dowel sleeve plus another side and sow these together. Just keep repeating this process  until you close up the 'tee-pee pyramid'. After just sewing two sides together, the amount of fabric just keeps getting heavier and it can get very difficult to sew.

I also decided to sew a rug for the tee-pee floor and with the fabrics leftovers also made a bunting and a couple of cushions. You can see the final tee-pee with both cushions and bunting below.

Step 4: Assembly your tee-pee

Once you have your tent ready, its just a matter of assembly the dowels and the tent. To assembly the tee-pee you first need to tie the dowels together. I used a lot of rope at this stage. For the knots I looked up for inspiration online. I found this tutorial at wikihow on how to tie the knot and I followed it to secure the dowels in place. I also found that some tutorials recommend to drill the dowels to thread the rope in. I skipped this altogether... It is true that having the rope thread in wholes will keep the rope secured in place, but it's not entirely necessary to be honest. My tee-pee has two years now, and the original knots I made are still in place. I am also opening and closing the tee-pee all the time, as we are using the tee-pee both indoors and outdoors... Even with all the opening and closing it up as an umbrella in the end of the day, the original knots are still there.  I do have to slide up the rope sometimes but thats about it. 

Step 5: Enjoy your tee-pee!

This is better part! Enjoying your work... and seeing how much your kids enjoy the tee-pee you made! They have so much fun just  by placing the tee-pee in place. And then, just by going in and out... Closing the entrance, opening the entrance! 

Iam very proud of my roomy tee-pee.  Even with lots of cushions inside (so its as comfortable as you possibly can make) both kidos fit perfectly inside... Since the dowels are very long, we can make more room inside the tee-pee by pulling the tent a little bit higher. You can fill in the spaces with extra cushions.

The cushions will also add extra comfort when outside.

I love to add the cushions and soft toys to this little tent. Its so very inventing to just lay in inside... Use it for some chill time... And it is a really comfortable spot to do some reading!

Now that the weather is so inviting since the spring finally arrived, we surely will be using the tee-pee outside everyday!

xx

I linked up:

My Monday Making: My first rag doll

It has been such a long time since I had some relative free time for some creative ventures.... Making a rag-doll it was on my to try list, and finally I made it.

Making this rag-doll was an excellent way to recycle some old t-shirts and fabric leftovers... and have lots of fun at it...!

Firstly I began by searching my fabric stash for cute fabrics for the dress.
I also draw  and cut the doll template from old newspapers:

I began by making the doll’s head:

For the doll’s head I used an old t-shirt fabric  for the face and felt for the hair. I created a pattern for the hair, and cut the felt for both front and back of the doll’s hair. I stitch the 'back hair 'together so it would look as side pigtails. I basted the front and back hair on the previous cut t-shirt following the pattern I made for the head.  I embroidered the front hair and then I saw both back and front together. Once stitched, I  then stuffed the head  and embroidered the doll’s eyes, nose and mouth.

Then I made the doll’s body...

Afterwards it was time to make a dress:

O also made some bows as hair pins.

I had so much fun creating and making this doll. As a little kid I always wanted a rag doll but never had one... I guess I am fulfilling  this as a grownup,  but better since I made it from scratch. I will later share the doll’s pattern for you to download.
Here’s another picture of the doll, although without having embroidered the mouth. I was undecided about how to make the little mouth, or even it should have one altogether...

In the end I eventually embroidered one...

I linked up with:

Reupholstering my chairs....

In the midst of finishing my thesis, for which I have less than 6 months left... I started an old endeavour of mine. Reupholstering my old chairs...!

And let me say that this will take a lot more time than antecipated. As usual... For starters, for me, this certainly will  will not be a weekend project, so I have no idea how some bloggers claim that this is so easy or it takes less than an afternoon to do one... well, I have no idea how you manage that, as I haven't even  finished one, so for the four chairs I have to repholster, I have no idea how long it will take...

I barely managed to remove the old fabric from one in one day... Well but at least I did paint it! 

I am working on my piping skills now. And since I wont be reupholstering as it was (I want my chairs to look more 'fancier'), I am adding some piping to them. So I had to self thought myself in piping!

And why have I decided to do this now? Well, its the same old thing, with more stress, more work to do and less time,...crafts and DIY projects to the rescue. I need to release some steam and stress and these projects help me do it. It is something that gives me pleasure and I thoroughly enjoy, and I am doing it to improve our little home... Also, my parents will be visiting us soon and I want my house to look more tidier. These chairs were looking so  dated, they were defenitely needing some makeover.

I am self-thoughting on the reuphosltering art, I downloaded and printed a book that explains the whole process, and adding to that I searched for some videos on youtube that show bits of it. I also observed tons of chairs, and how they were reupholstered (and any excuse works to stop by Laura Ashley store...). I also used this blog post as a guide.

This projects involved both sewing and painting.... So its much more complex than my first attempt when I repholstered my office chair.

But I things is much more enjoyable! And after I might just reupholster my office chair again...

As you can easily imagine, I still have a long way to go! I basically decided where my new piping should go. At least I already removed the old chair fabric, and cut the models from the new fabric. And no, its not the green that the picture shows... thats just an experience before doing it on the chosen fabric!

Here are some photos showing the work done so far:

I still have a long way to go...!

 

My Monday Making: Reversible baby leggins

I don´t think that this little project of mine was listed on my future projects to do list... But my other half had some old t-shirts that was about to give away... and you know that babies are always needing some leggings, so I decided to clean the dust from my sewing machine and make some reversible leggings. Its a way to save money, and upcycle some old t-shirts!

I wont be sharing a full tutorial, first because I am in no position to give any advice in how to better do this, as there are pretty good tutorials out there, I will however share some links of some tutorials that I read and partially followed. I will also explain some steps that I changed, either to make it easier or because well, simply I had no idea what that tutorial was trying to explain!

So this will involve sewing (you would never guess that would you?), 2 old t-shirts, a pair of leggings that your baby uses (so you can copy the template) and lots of time (if you are a beginner sewer as I am)...! I think that overall  this took me at least 6-8 hours altogether. Even though the tutorials that I used are indeed offering a pdf template, you better use a model of leggings that you have at home, mostly because you know that that model fits your baby. I found myself printing and cutting some templates to later on realize that that would never fit my baby!

Basically,  I copied a model of leggings onto some newspaper and cut it. I then cut the t-shirts and the pieces for both leggings following my template. To make the leggings I read this tutorial from made by Rae,  that pretty much explains the basics of how to sew a pair. I wanted to make reversible ones, so I also read this one  and this other one. I made mine a bit simpler I guess, I ended up by having two independent pair of leggings, and sew them together by using a simple hem (wrong sides together). I thought about using a French hem too, but then I decided that a simple hem would work, as it would save some fabric.

When I first finished the first pair, my little human tried it on, so I would know that the finished model would actually fit! Once I knew it would, I made the second one.

And here it is, a pair of reversible leggings ready and at use!

You can see from these pictures that I top-stitched every seam for a more "professional" look.

I also added a back pocket to this side of the leggings. The other one is much simpler... and has lots of mistakes too!

The leggings are not perfect, far from it, but they work perfectly for what I intended... They are wearable for a day out at the park and also to be left at the nursery in case a replacement is needed. And its a great way to upcycle an old  t-shirt!

 What do you think about my reversible leggings?

...Feel free to ask some questions, I would be more than happy if I can be of any help!

I am linking up with:

Writing down future projects...

I am swamped at work at the moment, and maybe precisely because of that my mind is swirling with ideas for new projects... I have noticed that these two happenings go hand in hand: exhausted at work, inspiration for new crafts!

I believe that my crafts are an escape for my work... But as I am so tired at the moment, and due to lack of time there´s no way I can even dare to begin any of those anytime soon. But to pace down my need to craft/sew/embroidery I will write down my next projects...

1. Sew a pair of dungarees to both my nephew and lo
    A friend of mine gave me leftovers curderoy that will go nicely as dungarees. I have the pattern already printed, so I just need to sit down and begin to cutting pieces...

2. Make a lunch box
    This project is on my mind for years now! I already have all the materials needed, PUL fabric, insulating material.... And I actually have to make one fast, as my lo needs to bring his tea to the nursery every day and so if I have a proper lunch box so that he can have a large variety of choices.

3. Re-upholstering chairs...
    Another old project... Again, I have the fabrics... It´s a matter of disassembling the chairs and substitute the fabric. Have to check if the foam needs replacement too though...

4. Embroidery part of this image:

 I have fallen in love with this fabric pattern (I forgot the name of it I´m afraid...once I remember I will write it down and attribute the source), and I think that this would be lovely as an embroidery wall-art...

And that´s it for now... I am not that ambitious in my crafts am I? Although I am pretty sure that I am missing a project or two..

 

DIY project: Bird Mobile

 

After one year, I was able to finally finish my baby´s bird mobile!

It took a lot of time... Actually my greatest effort was to find the time to complete it. Thinking of the actual work, it was pretty simple and I would be able to finish it earlier if I actually had the time for it.

The final result is far from what I had envisioned, instead of attaching the fabric bird to dowels, I was thinking of real branches. however, having natural branches in a baby’s room for me would mean having to treat it, paint it, varnish and employ all treatments necessary to guarantee  that the wood would not cause any harm or cause wood infestation.

So I decided to simply use dowels, much easier to use and I only had to make some small drill holes. I used nylon cord to connect the several dowels. 

The result, despite being different from my first idea, still is cute! And my baby just loves it! 

Several times when he is throwing a tantrum I just pick him up and take him to see “the birdies”. He loves to look at them, laughs and always tries to catch them! And forgets whatever issue he was not happy with! So it has definitely fulfilled ots purpose!

What about you? Have you finish a craft project lately?

 

I am linking up with this amazing blogger:

And it’s another elephant!

I must be going through an elephant phase. I just feel like sewing elephants…

Here you can see my first elephant as well..... They do look cute!

And guess what my next sewing Project is (not mentioning that I never got to start my dress…), another….no…not that! …yes! ElePhAnt! A mini elephant this time…!

I will be using fabric leftovers next time too… 

Hoping that I resume my sewing projects very soon… But stilll I have tons to do before indulging myself in my projects... Oh dear, why can´t we stop time?