Jan 7, 2011

Just Something I Made

I guess I have mentioned this enough times so it's probably time to show you Adrian's tee pee! 


I had an itch to make one ever since Jennifer started talking about making one (although, she wants to make a really big one outside that will fit all of her kids). Then, a few months before Christmas I was trying to come up with a 'big' gift for Adrian. I was thinking about climbing toys or tunnels, something down those lines. I searched Amazon but all of their stuff is so brightly colored with red and blue and all sorts of colors I didn't care for. Plus, they were expensive!! I threw out the idea of a climbing toy pretty quickly because let's face it, where would I store that in our little apartment when we had overnight guests? So, sticking with the idea of something collapsible, I shot on over to fabric.com to see if they had a tee pee pattern. I got lucky, they had one! To make it, I would need PVC pipes. Kind of tacky hey? Oh wait, that's what I used! We searched and searched for wooden dowels to use instead but by the time December 22nd rolled around I just wanted to be done. I picked up the last of my materials from Home Depot and Jeff and I worked together to finish it up. We had to sand the red lettering off the top of the pipes and Jeff drilled the holes. Somewhere down the line we plan to use sticks found in the woods and get rid of those pipes. It works for now!


Adrian has been having so much fun playing in his tee pee and I'm sure it will just get better with time as he discovers all the things he can use it for and all the stuff he can bring into it! BTW, I put those pillows inside and later in the day he brought them all back to the living room. 



 This was super simple project (unless you try to find wooden dowels in the right size...) and I might just make another one someday if we have a whole slew of kids. It's literally a bunch of straight lines. The hardest part was working with this fabric because it's kind of swishy. Uh, yeah, I'm not sure how else to describe it. Slippery? Yeah, that's probably a better word! The long seams are a little off but that's okay! The best part is, the entire things collapses as thin as the poles so I can tuck it in a closet of under a bed if I need to!

ETA:
Whoops! I almost forgot to show you the 'before' shot of the apron I gave to Gretchen!


I bought this at a garage sale one time when we were visiting Sara and Jennifer with the intention of resizing it for myself. When I was up north a few weeks ago, Gretchen mentioned that she needed an apron. Lightbulb! I got to work and after resewing the entire thing 17 times I came up with this:


Shorter bottom, narrower top, and halter-style strap. I hope you like it Gretch!

4 comments:

Heather said...

I am in love with that teepee! Awesome job! I just might have to make one! And cute apron...I have yet to own one although I have a cute empty hook waiting for one ;]

Yvonne said...

now isn't that the cutest thing!

~ Junkyard Jennifer said...

Your tee pee turned out great. (And maybe someday we'll actually have one around here, too! haha.)

~ Jennifer

Gretchen said...

I love it! It was so handy when I finally made some supper last night :)