Unless you are living in an actual tent in the woods, you couldn’t have missed the children’s teepee and tent craze! No nothing seems to be more stylish for little tykes than a mini teepee to horse around in. But if you’re a mamma like me, you’re a momma on a budget. And dropping $200.00 on a toy made from material and wood dowels sounded kinda, sorta nuts. So I took a good look at a couple different designs and said to my capable self, “I can make that!”. And then I did.
Let’s just say this little handmade teepee DIY has seriously stolen my heart without stealing all my money!
How to Make a Kid’s Teepee…
Materials:
– Fabric for the teepee sides (the floral fabric). I purchased 5 yards to be safe, but I only ended up using 3.5 yards.
– Fabric for the teepee pole tubes (the yellow polka-dot fabric). 1 yard of this was enough because the width of the fabric I used was the correct height of the tube.
– Sticks or poles or dowels of some kind. The poles I used were 3/4″ diameters wooden dowels I purchased a my local hardware store. I bought 4 poles at 66″ each.
– Twine or something similar. You just need about 1 yard of twine to fasten your poles together.
Steps:
Step 1: First you need to cut your material to the correct pattern. You should cut 4 tube pieces at 50″ X 6.5″. Then cut 4 triangle side pieces. These side pieces have a flat top that is 4″ with two side pieces at 50″ that angle down to a bottom piece of 40″. Did you get all that? If not, there’s a picture above ;).
Step 2: Time to break out the handy-dandy sewing machine and channel your inner Martha. It’s time to hem. A hem, for you brave beginning sewers (which was me a couple of weeks ago) is when you fold and sew a fabric edge over to create a clean sewn edge. You want to hem both ends of all 4 tube pieces and the top and bottom of all 4 side pieces. Make sure you fold the raw fabric edge towards the bad (or dull) side of your fabric and sew.
Step 3: Now you want to sew your tubes into actual tubes for obvious reasons. Fold your fabric in half like a hotdog bun with the dull side on the inside. Then feed the folded tube through your sewing machine on the non-folded edge. Tada tubes!
Step 4: This step is the most complicated step by far, but don’t worry we will get through this together. If you pin the pieces together correctly, then you’ll sew it together correctly. Start by laying one triangle side down with the bright side of the fabric facing up. Then, along one of the triangle’s sides, lay the sewn edge of one tube piece parallel with the cut (non hemmed) triangle side edge (see top image of this step). Next lay a second triangle side piece on top with the bright side facing down. The side of this top triangle piece should line up parallel with the tube’s sewn edge and the bottom triangle’s side edge. Now pin the three pieces together along the edge. Time to sew…Sew along the pinned edge, making sure all three pieces get stitched together. Then repeat Step 4 with all four teepee sides!
Step 5: I chose to add a little color to my teepee poles, but you can keep it rustic with the raw wood. You will want to drill a hole in your poles at about 16.5″ from the top. Then you feed your poles through the tent tubes and prop it up. You may want to ask a buddy to hold the teepee in place while you feed the twine through the poles and tie it together. Once you have that little teepee all sewn and tied up, don’t forget to cut a flap on one of the triangle sides. I cut mine about 3/4 of the way up.
Finished! Congrats! Now enjoy the heck out of this little teepee DIY!
Want to see other types of kid’s hideouts? Let us know your ideas!
Alix Adams is a glitter user and ice cream abuser. She blogs at A Ruffled Life when she’s not kissing her baby’s fat rolls or painting a wall.
this was so beautiful! I´m going to be an aunt this summer, and I´m so excited about all the fun it´ll be with a child in the family!
Thank you very much! Children are amazing. They really bring out the beauty in life!
love this!
Thanks Annie!
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This teepee looks amazing. I’ve failed at the first hurdle though and cut the material wrong….i’ve ended up with triangles that are 50″ on each side. Do you think it will still work ok? or does the bottom edge need to be smaller?
thanks
Nicola,
I’m so glad that you are doing my craft! triangles that are 50″ along the bottom should work just fine. Your teepee will just be a bit wider and that is not an issue at all. You should be able to complete the teepee as instructed!
Thanks!
What did you use a seam allowance? for this project?
I used 1/2″ as seam allowance on the whole project.
thank yo so much ive been looking at these beautiful teepees for ages and wanted to get my kiddies them for xmas but would of cost me £200+ so i thought id jus make them myself! im quite gud on a sewing machine so thought it would be easy and alot cheaper! defo gonna make these now ive found a plan!! cant wait to start making them now
xxx
I love you tepee, I made it for my 2 year old grand daughter for her Christmas present, and she loves it. I would like to thank you for the great pattern, I made some slight alteration to it. I would love send you some photos, as I am so proud of what I achieve, having not touch a sewing machine for many years. Regards Geraldine
Hi if I wanted to make this but larger would it work out ok if I had bigger dowels? Thanks in advance and the teepee is absolutely beautiful : )
Thanks for sharing this :) I made one of my own recently. I shared your page on my blog hope that’s ok.
Where did you get your floral fabric? I love it!
It’s super cute, isn’t it? This was a guest post by Alix Adams, and I’m not sure where she found the fabric. I’ll email her to find out and let you know once I hear back from her.
I am wondering how to finish off the entrance flap. Did you finish the edges?
Love this cute teepee!
Thanks,
Rosemary
What kind of fabric did you use?
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Hi there! just finished my tee-pee and I’m so happy about it, I want it for myself LOL (I made it for the son of a friend, as a birthday present). Thanks for the easy instructions and pictures. I was off with some of the measurements but the idea is simple and adaptable, so YEYY.
Absolutely stunning, Mama! You are a winner for even posting all of these instructions. It can be more time consuming than the project itself to post how to do it. What a creative angel you are!
If you are not a pro sewer and dont know the differences in fabric you should know that you need to purchase atleast a yard and a half of fabric for the poles. Unless you are uimg home dec and a yard would be enough because it is 54” wide and regular fabric is usually 44” wide.
Where did you purchase your fabrics? I love them both! So beautiful!
Thanks…
I am wanting to make this for my bunny and was wondering how I should scale down the measurements – any suggestions?? I want it to be big enough for a cat to comfortably lie in it?
I made it but I dont know why the pole tubes didt fit to the triangles. They fit shirter even if if cut them in 50 inches. How can I heló the poles dont move? I fell the teepee is almost falling down. I love the tee pee. Thank for sharing.
Is it necessary for each triangle to be attached to the pole? My Teepee will hv 5 dowels as that is what i inherited. Do you suggest this method so that the sides dont collapse and they stay evenly spaced?
Hi Louise! yes, attaching each section will make it more stable.