I shared a picture of the tent I made for Jacob for his birthday, now here's a little how-to. Well, sort of. I looked at Rubyellen's tutorial (find it here) and the changes Drea made (find it here) and just sort of went with it.
This tent is set up in a little play area for Jacob, and he LOVES being in it! It's his spot to read books all day, take in small toys, and we cuddle up in there a few times a day. Sometimes I hand him water or a snack and he says "Thank you" then heads into his tent to eat it. It melts my heart every time.
I can't take credit for the tutorial, so I'll just tell you what I did differently from Rubyellen's original post:
1. I added a dowel at each set of legs, by simply drilling holes on each side (measuring 4" up from the bottom) and sliding a dowel through the holes.
2. I didn't add elastic or ties to the fabric. Well, I did add ties to it at first but Jacob ripped one of them off and the others kept sliding. I think if you are going to do the ties, the best way to keep them tight around the wood is to notch out a spot for them on the wood. I didn't feel like dealing with that.
3. I just draped the sheet over the center dowel, wrapped it under the bottom dowels, and used velcro to keep them in place. The velcro makes it easy for me to remove the fabric when it needs to be washed.
4. I didn't measure out the length of the fabric, I just used a sheet and trimmed it widthwise a bit.
5. I liked Drea's idea of adding extra dowels at the bottom. I didn't add a back piece, though I wanted to at first. Jacob kept picking up his tent (it's really light) and wanting to throw it, but he's not doing that anymore. I'll probably not add that extra piece so it remains easy to fold up and put away if I ever need to.
This tent took all of 45 minutes to make and aside from the dowels (which are a couple of bucks a piece), I used items I already had at home. It's a super simple project that kids of any age will enjoy. Best of all, it folds up easily and can be tucked away quickly.
