DIY Wee Ones TeePee

We have arrived at the Christmas season yet again (omg omg my FAVORITE!). In my search for gifts for my difficult to please nephew I ran across these adorable teepees at The Land of Nod (known for their adorable items and high prices)

Land of Nod A TeePee to call you own

My sister's family is very into Native American culture and this just seemed like a perfect fit!  As I am sure you have guessed by now, this lead to me deciding that I would have to make my own. My husband suggested I use a natural canvas and include paints so they could decorate it themselves, which of course is the best idea ever!

Total cost of the project was about $60 (not including paints) so it's still a chunk of change but well worth it for such a unique and meaningful gift (not to mention it certainly beats the $150 price tag you'd pay to buy a similar gift).


So what will it take to make your own Wee One's Teepee? Just check out my steps below for this simple sewing project.

Materials:
4 - 1" diameter 6 foot long dowels. I found some at Lowes.
3 1/2 yards of field color 60" bolt canvas for the panels (with matching thread)
1 1/2 yards of accent color 60" bolt canvas for the dowel corners (with matching thread)
Twine and 2 toggle buttons for the door

*for the cleanest results, always iron your edges before cutting and sewing*

Step one is to cut out the canvas fabric to the dimensions shown below. I created a paper stencil to help ensure all my pieces were equal sizes.

Once you everything is cut out, you should have pieces as shown below, I numbered them out here for reference.

1. The first step is to create your door out of your two piece style 1's. Lay them on top of one another facing each other so all the edges line up and sew two inches from the edge 2' down from the top, leaving a 3' opening. Fold back the 2" pieces and top stitch each side.

2. Hem the top and bottom of each of your panels, two inches on the bottom and one inch on the top. Due to the thickness of the fabric I did not double fold my fabrics before hemming them because my sewing machine was struggling to punch threw that many layers of the canvas. If you have a high powered machine, you may not have that problem.

3. Hem the top pole sleeves (accent color canvas). Just 1/4" on the top. Then fold your sleeves in half so the raw edge of the hem is on the outside (what will be inside out) and sew the bottom edge of the sleeve together. Flip the sleeves right side out so both raw edges are on the inside and sew closed the sleeves leaving the raw edge on the outside (don't worry all the raw edges will end up on the inside of the teepee). Note: make sure you leave PLENTY of room for your dowels to slide into the sleeves! You don't to struggle to slide your dowels into their sleeves (or even worse not have them fit at all).

Bottom edge of Dowel Sleeve

Top opening of Dowel Sleeve

4. Piece everything together making lining up your raw edges making sure they are all on what will be the inside of the tent.

Pinning all the raw edges to sew together each piece.

Pinning and Sewing all the pieces together

5. Once all the pieces are put together, you can cut off any excess on the inside seams of the tent. Using a scrap piece of fabric either from your field fabric or accent (whichever you have scrap of) to create a strap to tie the dowels together at the top so your teepee doesn't sag. If you don't feel like bothering with making your own strap or if you don't have enough scrap, you can always use twine or something else to tie off the poles.

6. sew on your toggle buttons and loops (with the raw ends of the twine on the inside of the teepee doors).

7. Insert your dowels into the sleeves and tie off the top and you're done!

All in all this project was probably less than a 10 hour investment and I am not a master seamstress so someone with more experience could probably do a much cleaner and faster job than I did. I would like to give the poles a couple of coats of oil but that is completely optional since this is intended as mostly an indoor fort.

I hope you and your little ones enjoy your very own teepee forts!