Snow Day DIY: Play Tent on the Cheap!

Willa's finished Play Tent!

Henry's teepee inspiration!

Supplies

     Having a snow day means that my daughter and I got to enjoy an extra day at home with Daddy! This usually involves some kind of project. Today we tackled a small project we've been thinking about for a while: a simple play tent for our daughter! I was inspired by a good friend and fellow SS, Nicki, who has a really fabulous, fun and cozy teepee in her son's play room. We don't have enough space for something that big, but thought a smaller, A-frame tent might work! 

After some googling and pinteresting, we settled on a list of supplies:

• a twin sized flat sheet - $4.97 at Wal-mart
• 4 - 1"x 2"x 48" white wood boards - $0.98 each at Lowes
• 1 - 3/4" dowel - $2.97 at Lowes
• 2 - 1/2" dowels - $1.68 each at Lowes
• 2 - 2" long, 3/8" carriage bolts - $0.18 each at Lowes
• 2 - 3/8" wing nuts - $0.92 each at Lowes
• 2 - 3/8" flat washers - $0.04 each at Lowes

Total cost = $17.50 + tax!!

To save more cash, you could use an old sheet, or scrap fabric, sewn to the proper dimensions!

The Process!

We started by getting the frame together. 

• First we decided where we wanted the A frame pieces to cross. Then we marked them with a pencil. Do this for all 4 pieces.
• We marked the centers, where the pieces cross, and drilled a 3/8" hole in each.



Bottom of each piece,
marked in the center,
2" from end.

• On the bottom end of each piece of wood, we put a dot in the center, 2" up from the bottom. We then drilled through with a 1/2" forstner bit. The 1/2" dowels will go in these holes!

Hairy, man hands holding
the cross pieces.

Cross pieces, with center
marked for drilling.

We put the wing nuts on the inside.

• When the 3/8" holes were drilled, we put carriage bolts through the 2 sets of cross pieces, with a washer and the wing nut on the other side. The wing nut will allow us to tighten the pieces together so the tent holds it shape better, then loosen it, if we want to fold it in half to lean against the wall, out of the way. 

• To assemble, we took each A frame that we just made in the previous step and stuck the 1/2" dowels into the bottom 1/2" holes we drilled, then we put the 3/4" dowel on top. To make it a little extra sturdy, we made a notch in the dowel using a table saw, so it would sink down onto the frame a little more. This has to hold up against my toddler!

While the husband was drilling holes and assembling the frame, I worked on cutting and hemming the sheet.

• I determined that the final dimensions needed to be 45" x 87" long. A twin sheet is 66" x 96". I decided to trim and hem the width first. Using a cutting mat and rotary cutter, I cut off 20" in width, which left 1" to hem. After hemming the width, I hung the fabric over the wood frame to determine the right length, which ended up being 87". The already finished end of the sheet had a 4" hem for the top of the sheet, so I repeated that on the opposite end. To do that, I trimmed off 5", then folded over 4" and hemmed it!

• I wanted to put ties on the corners to attach the fabric to the frame, so I cut off the 1/2" hemmed edge of my scraps to use for this. I folded each piece (about 2 ft. lengths) in half and sewed it into each of the 4 corners, as well as the middle points along the length of the fabric, for tying to the top of the A-frame. I sewed on 6 ties total.

Bottom ties

Top ties

• The only thing left to do now was to hang the fabric over the top dowel rod and fasten the ties!

She loves it!

Finished!!

If you had a snow day today, what did you do with your time? Did you do any special projects or crafts? Do you love snow days or dread them? We love them around here, since we get extra daddy time!

Lindsey