DIY: Tepee

I've often wondered what goes in to actually making a tepee and the other week I quite unexpectedly had to find out.  My one that was ready to install in a baby's shop window, needed a bit of freshening up so I soaked it and lo and behold all the colours bled= lesson learned never soak a tepee! Awesome what a last minute freak out can teach you.... Luckily for me I have an amazingly talented seamstress mother-in-law, that was able to whip one up so i thought I would share with you the basics of how to make your own but be aware that this is the basic watered down version of what happened.

You need:
4x metres of fabric (lightweight cotton or canvas works the best)
5x tepee polls or broom sticks from Bunnings
2x press studs
sewing machine and thread!

Our original tepee was from An Angel At My Table so we used those poles to base the pattern on. 

First off was to select the fabric- I wanted a fairly lightweight cotton so that it would breathe and drape nicely, whatever you choose make sure it's easy to clean and durable. After trying to track down a particular print and failing (time was not on my side but next time I make one I would head straight to Spoonflower they have such a great selection of fabric I use it all the time)

 I settled on a fairly plain chevron blue and white print. 

Then it was up to my superstar mother in law to mock up a quick pattern for it that would slide over the poles.... hmmm not as easy as it sounds! Lucky she was a seamstress and is amazing at arithmetic too= winning!

This is the basic layout:

  

The door  was custom made (mother in laws secret!) you can always measure one of your panels in half and then cut 3/4 to the top.
The trickiest part was sewing the insert for the poles you have to make sure you have enough space for the poles to comfortably sit in but not too loose- the diameter for our poles was 1.7mm so we left a good 1.9mm to be sure.

Then we cut the fabric to measure, sewed the segments together and then ironed it and fit it over

The addition of the curtain bits to pull back was last minute and I just added a piece of fabric with a press stud to hold back the entry

I then just added a mask to the top and hung over a banner I had from .Little O and Co to make it a bit softer. The best bit was laying out a nice crocheted blanket for the rug and getting together a few softies for a tea party.

Happy tepee making guys!! xx