Twin Sheet Teepee

It was time to retire the refrigerator box playhouse.  The kids had ripped out the curtains and one of the windows.  My daughter spilled her brother's sippy cup in there, used a toy sword to make some holes in it, and pulled the roof down on the side.  It lasted a good 9 months, which I think is kind of impressive. 

So I started looking for a kind of replacement- something inexpensive and durable.  I was browsing a craft thread on a parenting forum and found this awesome tutorial from Obsessively Stitching.  The best part is that the material needed is just a twin flat sheet, only 4 dollars at Walmart.

 Here's the finished teepee. 

I actually made this owl because I got some sewing machine grease on my fabric, so I needed to cover it up.  I have a thing for owls, and it matches the new playroom curtains I made.

  

 My daughter saw me making it last night, and it was the first thing she asked about this morning.  She ran into the playroom and declared, "Mom can have the computer.  I'm playing in my TENT!"  Then she ran around the outside of it and said, "Dad, there's no door."  Haha. He showed her how to open the door flap and she promptly filled it with toys.  I declare it a success.

A couple of things I noticed when making this-
- I had to make the pole sleeves closer to 2 inches instead of 1 1/2.  I used 3/4 inch PVC pipe as instructed, so I'm not sure why I had to sew bigger sleeves.
-I spent a good 15 minutes staring at the pattern instructions for the door piece (step 2) before I realized the right illustration is zoomed in.  I was so confused about where I should be sewing "along the upper left edge," but then I figured it out.  It's just at the very top right of the door piece.

This is actually a really simple project.  I really liked it.  Total time start to finish was about 4 hours.