Tuesday 14 July 2015

A teepee for Lilah-Mai

I come from a big loud family in Texas.  I have 4 sisters and 24 nieces and nephews in Texas, plus, God willing, will have a new nephew or niece at the beginning of 2016.  I also have a niece here in the UK.  I'm very blessed I think :)  When I first came to live here in the UK in 2011 it was a very big change, as my wife has a small family.
In 2011 it was us, her parents, brother, sister and her fiance so it was weirdly quiet and a bit lonely, especially when my wifey was at work :D  So in 2013 when my wife's sister Emily had Lilah-Mai I was in heaven :) finally a little child to spoil here in the UK :)  I started making her things when she was still in Emily's tummy. I made her a blanket and a red sparkly tutu :D
Beautiful girl <3

I've continued making her crafty things that I'd like to share on here.  The latest things I made for her were a bit of a challenge for me.  I wanted to throw it out the window at one point, but I didn't give up.  When Lilah wasn't even walking yet I decided I wanted to make her a teepee to play in.  Emily had also said she would like one for Lilah, so I finally made her one.  I decided to make a quilt for the teepee to sit on as well.  I finished it last week and it's now in her room at her house :)
Here it is!
I used bamboo poles for the frame and cotton print fabric to make 3 of the panels.  The door panel was made from white cotton fabric and a piece of cream colored fabric.  I used felt and embroidery thread to make the applique with her initial and bias tape to sew around the door opening and for the ties. 
My teepee was meant to have 5 panels, but I honestly don't know what happened :D I think it came out ok though.  The quilt was fun to make too.  I'm a hoarder so I have a lot of fabric scraps.  If you ask my wife she will agree :D  I made 84 5x5 squares, all of them different and made a nice sized quilt to go with Lilah's teepee :) 
Here it is!
If anyone wants to make a teepee of their own there are so many awesome tutorials out there.  I found loads of them.  The ones I looked at the most when making mine were The DIY Mommy, her teepee is lovely and she's got a pattern there and good instructions.  I also liked and then we saved, her page also has very nice clear instructions and pictures to follow.  My favorite was strawberry swing.  I wanted my teepee to have 5 panels like this one :)  It's a very good tutorial. Quite a few tutorials linked to this site - Smile and Wave - saying it was a good tutorial to follow with very clear instructions and it is.  I also read this one when making my teepee. The thing with me is that I'm a visual learner so the tutorials with pictures work best for me :)
So happy teepee making for anyone who wants to give it a go :)


No comments:

Post a Comment