anything once: making an indoor play tent

My mom is addicted to Pinterest. If she hears an interesting quote in real life, she thinks about which of her boards she could pin it on. She has 52 boards and 1409 pins, and I've mocked her more than once for her addiction. However, she also discovers such fun ideas, like making an indoor play tent for Eiley's room! 

We decided a few Saturdays ago to move full force on this idea, and we headed over to Hobby Lobby. I absolutely hate to admit how much I like that store. I mean, they play muzak versions of CCM. On one trip there I endured an instrumental version of Michael W. Smith's "Place in this World" played entirely on sax and synthesizer. So basically the place is like a giant Christian elevator filled with craft and decorating supplies, but I can't deny that it's magical. My mom and I went without a firm plan on how we'd create the tent (how hard could it be, right?), and we walked straight over to the fabric section where there was...a free pamphlet with ideas on how to make indoor play tents. What?! MAGICAL. 

Steps to creating a play tent:

1. Purchase super cute fabric. Guys. I actually used the Pythagorean Theorem to figure out how much fabric we'd need. I still had that in my head from Geometry, which was in my sophomore year of high school. Please at least pretend to be impressed (except you, Manny. You may say something like "pshaw" and return to being a genius). Anyway, to make a tent that was 5 feet tall and 5 feet wide, we'd need a little less than 4 yards of fabric. 

2. Purchase 4" wide ribbon, at least 4 yards.

3. Purchase embroidery thread and needles and an optional fancy threader thing to make threading the needle easier.

4. Purchase wooden dowel. We chose one that was about 3 feet long and 3/4 inch in diameter. The diameter isn't super important, as long as it's strong enough to hold the weight of the fabric.

5. Sew the ribbon onto the edge of the fabric so it has a bit of a finished look. We did this by hand, which was the only time consuming part of this process and wasn't totally necessary. We watched some fun movies though, so it didn't really matter.

Shhh...she's concentrating!

6. Cut two holes at the center of the fabric, where you plan to hang the tent.

7. Wrap ribbon under wooden dowel and through the holes in the fabric.

8. Affix something to the ceiling in two places that correspond with the ribbon locations. My husband used something that enabled him to screw a metal hoop into our ceiling.

9. Tie the two ribbons to the hoops or secure them to the ceiling some other way.

10. Attach the sides of the tent however you choose! I thumbtacked one side to the wall, then used Eiley's crib to hold the other side down. You could also use carpet tacks or think of something else.

11. We hung string lights over the tent for some extra lighting in there, added a couple pillows and a cushy blanket as a carpet, and voila! Awesomeness.

This was a success (even though I admit I've been enjoying the tent more than Eiley)! And, of course, you can find it on my mom's Pinterest board, "we saw, we pinned, we DID."