fabrication: A tee pee for Thomas

We live in a very small house that is in need of a lot of work. Ever since we moved in last March I have been dying to do up Thomas's room so that he has somewhere lovely to sleep and hang out doing boy stuff. Unfortunately other things, like rotten weatherboards, the fabrication suite and the garden, have taken up any spare time we have for renovating and we haven't gotten to his room yet.

So, to make up for it I wanted to give Thomas a Christmas present that would go some way towards brightening up his room and making his space a bit more toddler friendly. And since his favourite game still seems to be peek-a-boo I decided that a tee pee would be the perfect thing. He could hide in it, read books in it when he gets older, and generally have a wee space of his own.

I had seen a pattern for one ages ago in a Your Home & Garden magazine but of course when I went to look for it in my stack of mags I couldn't find it. Luckily, the lovely Fiona at YH&G was more than happy to email me a copy of the pattern so I set to work.

The tee pee takes quite a bit of fabric (just over 4m in total - I used curtain/upholstery fabric from Fabric House here in Christchurch) and you also need a few other bits and bobs, like dowel rods, some ribbon and a few beads, but it is very easy to make. Basically you just cut out your triange-shaped sides, stitch them together, add your strips for the poles and whack a hem around the top and bottom and you're done.

And, the result is fabulous - a tee pee that fits one small person very easily (at a pinch you can almost fit one small person and his mummy and daddy, or as in the bottom photo, his Gran and Great Aunty), it's portable, easy to erect, and is a great play hut for inside or out. Today we finally had some sun so I moved it outside for him. Unfortunately the wind meant that playtime was quite short lived because it kept blowing over (luckily not while Thomas was in it though!)