A teepee for Alma:PART ONE (and my first attempt at a tutorial)

Like most children and domestic cats, Alma really likes to hide under things. I saw an adorable teepee in a fancy children's store in Brooklyn a year ago and knew Alma would love it. But, due to these reasons, we can't really roll with a fancy children's store teepee right now, so we made our own.

Now, I must add, making your own of something does not always make it cheaper. Last year, we made Alma this play kitchen:

I love the kitchen for sentimental as well as ascetic purposes. It is pretty enough to be in our living room year round, Alma plays with it on a daily basis, and a lot of love and attention to detail was put into the thing from both Adam and myself. However, we did not really save money on making our own. I forget the exact figures, but I know we spent more than the cost of this Ikea kitchen (although, of course, I like ours better).

But, this year I really needed to keep it cheap. I did so by using old fabric I had (an old set of sheets), dye, and gold fabric paint. The whole project cost me approximately $40. Let me explain the basics of this little teepee as it really isn't that hard and so far it has been a big hit with my little small space obsessed child.

Materials:
2 Ten foot long 4 inch round dowel rods cut in half (so you end up with four poles each 5 ft long)
Fabric for outside of tent (I used one flat queen sheet)
Fabric for inside of tent (I used one fitted queen sheets with the elastic removed)
Fabric for binding and pockets for poles- 1 yd

If you want to buy fabric for the teepee instead of using a sheet (or drop cloth? or old curtains?), I estimate that you will need 3 yards of fabric for the outside of the teepee if you are willing to piece together two of the four sides or 6 yards if you are not willing to do so. You will need the same yardage for the lining as you have for the outside of the tent.

Part One: Cut 


1. Cut out the sides for your teepee

a. Make your pattern:

Tape some big craft paper together in a rectangle at least 50 inches by 21 inches. Measure 50 inches up one side to make the height of your triangle and 21 inches to form the base of your triangle. Draw the hypotenuse of your triangle (the side that isn't the base or the height) by using either a big ruler or folding the paper to make a straight fold from point to point. Measure 49 inches up the hypotenuse of the triangle from the base and make a mark. Draw a straight line across the tip of the triangle from that mark to the height arm of the triangle and cut off the tip of your triangle.

b. Cut out your fabric:

By lining up the height side of your pattern, which is marked fold in the picture above, with the fold of your fabric, cut out the four sides of your teepee from your fabric.

c. Repeat these steps with your lining fabric.

d. If you are using new fabric and want to cut in conservatively, here is a guide as how to cut it:

e. Cut out binding and rod pockets:

This is what you want to end up with: a long strip of fabric that 140 inches long and 2.5 inches wide and four strips that are 50 inches long and 3.5 inches wide. In order to get that, we will have to cut out multiple strips of fabric and piece them together. Start with a rectangle of fabric that is 43 inches long by 27.5 inches wide. Here is how you cut it:

You will end up with 4 strips of fabric that are 43 inches long and 2.5 inches wide and 5 strips of fabric that are 43 inches long and 3.5 inches wide. I'll show you how to piece them together in a minute.

Okay, so now all your pieces are cut out for your teepee. Since this tutorial is getting pretty long and picture heavy, I am going to split it up into parts. Part 2 will show you how to sew all the pieces together.

A little additional note: If you are using old repurposed fabric, there are some easy ways to dye fabric and add details. Jacquard iDye is so simple and leaves really good results. I find freezer paper stenciling to be one of the most satisfying crafting processes that I know. I recommend doing an dyeing of fabric before you cut out our pieces and doing any stenciling after you cut out your pieces but before you do any sewing. 

Here is my fabric in the stenciling process:

I'll be back soon with part 2.