Hey everyone! 

So I have had a lot of inquiries about how I made my daughters teepee and I figured the easiest way to share it with everyone was through a blog post! 

I didn’t take too many photos of actually making the teepee, so for materials used I will try to just add links to the same kind I bought! 

What you need: 

1) Krylon Foil Metallic Copper Spray Paint- I got mine here along with most of everything else!

2) 4 Dowel Rods with holes drilled in them at the top where they need to be secured. (or posts cut from a wood store like HomeDepot if you want yours bigger. I used 4ft rods and mine is built for a very small space in Chloe’s room and Home Depot drilled the rods for me there on site for free! ) 

3) Hot Glue Gun and A LOT of Glue! 

4) At least 3 yards of fabric. You will need more fabric if you use one pattern and you will need less fabric if you use multiple patterns. I used two patterns and had 3 yards of each with a little bit of material left over. (I got my fabric from Hobby Lobby) 

5) Trim (You can get this from any craft store. I got mine from the ribbon section at Hobby Lobby) 

6) Tacks or Push Pins

7) A Sewing machine if you want to be nifty. 

8) About 3ft of Hemp or Rope to secure the dowels in place. (Make sure it fits the diameter of the hole you drilled into the dowels!) 

 

How I assembled the tent: 

Step 1) Spray Paint your dowels until they entirely covered in the color of your choosing. Most paint will dry within 15-20 but I wouldn’t suggest using them until a few hours after you have painted them to ensure that no sticky residue gets on you or your home. 

Step 2) Once the dowels are painted and dried you can snake the rope through the holes and wrap it a few times around the posts to get them nice and secure. You don’t want them to move or your fabric won’t hang right as you start to place it on them. 

Step 3) Begin your design by wrapping a small strip of fabric on top of where your rope is. This helps add extra security to your dowels as well as it hides the ugly rope and gives your teepee a bit of pizazz! 

Step 4) Once you have wrapped the fabric to the top you can start piecing on the strips of materials you want to place on the teepee. I would suggest doing one strip at the top (Mine were approximately a foot wide) and then starting from the bottom and working your way up.

This was the trickiest part for me because I had to make sure each strip of fabric was pulled tight enough all the way around. Mine kind of turned out diagonal since the back dowels of my teepee were closer together than the front two dowels. 

I secured each piece with the push pins I had to give me room for error before I permanently placed the fabric. Once each piece was placed on my teepee I went through and removed the tacks one by one and secured the strips with hot glue. Any excess side fabric I had just got glued to the inside of the tent to cover the dowels and give it a more finished look. 

I made sure to glue each actual strip together too to keep the fabric pulled tight all over. This is where you could sew each piece but I was too lazy to do that. 

Step 4) Once your fabric is in place and everything is glued you can add trim, accents, “jewelry”, whatever your creative heart desires. I placed my trim on the front flaps and around the top and bottom strips of fabric (running the full length of each strip of fabric)

I intend to go back and add more trim to the other strips of fabric as well but I ran out and haven’t had a chance to run to the store for more! 

All in all- this was an easy project. Since I didn’t sew my fabric or trim I only spent about 2 hours total making it and I am in love with it! 

Be sure that if you decide to take this project on that you prepare for bumps along the way. It is NOT going to be perfect but it will be super cute and way more cost efficient than buying one. Plus you get to proudly boast- Yes, I DID make that myself! 

Good luck!