Floral & Striped Teepee || DIY

This post is sponsored by Online Fabric Store.  Fabric was provided and all thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Hi Friends! Happy Friday! Today I wanted to share my tutorial for a DIY teepee with you.  The Online Fabric Store provided me with gorgeous fabric to make Olivia a teepee for her second birthday.  I was so happy with their customer service and could not have had a better experience with their company.  The fabric I chose was Premier Prints Canopy in baby pink and Amy Butler Fresh Poppies in fuchsia.  I loved the colors and patterns together and knew it would be perfect for a fun, whimsical play teepee. The teepee is about 36" on each side, and I was given three yards of the Premier fabric and four yards of the Amy Butler fabric to use.  I'm planning on using what was leftover to make a few pillows for her play area to match.  I also love that we can bring the teepee outside for some fun in the fresh air too! This tutorial is full of pictures, so you can follow along with how I created her teepee. 

Supplies:

* 3 - 6 yards of fabric (depending on how large you'd like your area and if you are alternating sides)
*Four 1 1/4 poplar dowels (found at Lowe's or Home Depot)
*Sisal rope

I am lucky enough to have a local shop where you are able to rent sewing machines and the owner was wonderful at instructing me. My sewing machine needs to be repaired so this was the perfect opportunity for me to spend a few baby free hours and learn some fun sewing techniques ;)

To begin, we traced out our patterns on tracing paper.  I found a pattern on Pinterest and adjusted it to fit our space.  Remember to check twice and cut once! This was so important when we were measuring out the striped fabric, as I wanted horizontal stripes.  I chose to alternate sides with the two fabrics so each side needed to be matched appropriately.  

After all of the sides were traced, measured and cut, I serged all of the sides with a serger.  This prevents the fabric from fraying and provides cleaner sides.  The lighting wasn't great, so I apologize for some darker pictures.  I was really happy with how clean the lines looked after using the serger. 

Once all of the sides have been serged, begin to cut the fabric for the poles.  I made these 5" wide.  Next time, I'd probably make them 6" wide to provide a little more wiggle room as they are very tight on the poles.  Use the serger to enclose the fabric to create tubes.

After your pole tubes are created, layer one side (inside out) with one tube then another side (inside out), basically creating a little sandwich.  Sew the two sides together, with the tube inside of the sides.  Repeat with each side.

The front of the teepee is a mix between both fabrics. My absolute favorite part is the monogram on the top portion.  It's a sweet personalized touch and I love all things monogrammed! This was done by using the embroidering machine, a perk of sewing this at the shop. 

Once the teepee was all sewn together, I trimmed the loose threads and laid it out flat.  Place the dowels in the fabric tubes and then maneuver them around so the fabric sits nicely and all four poles are evenly spaced.  This was probably the most frustrating part for my husband.  I had my hubby help me put the poles in and lets just say it was a little touch and go there ;)  I literally had to move the poles in different directions approximately 742 times.  Anyway, once the poles were in, he drilled a hole in each one and began to string the sisal rope through, wrapping it around each pole until the teepee was able to stand on its own.  The first time we tried to do this, we wrapped it around quite a few times and realized it wouldn't be able to open and close so the better option for us was to wrap it slightly less. 

I am thrilled with the final result. I set it up in our playroom for her to see it on the morning of her birthday and she dove right into it!  I love that this is such a fun place for her to play and enjoy herself with her little friends.  For an extra whimsical touch, I added pillows from Home Goods and a super soft, fluffy rug from T.J. Maxx, which is actually a bath mat - perfect size! I also added a pom pom garland around the poles, which I love. 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!  Any questions, feel free to leave a comment and I'll be sure to help. A huge thank you to the Online Fabric Store for sponsoring this post and providing the beautiful fabric! What do you think about the teepee??  Make sure you check them out on Instagram @onlinefabricstore! I hope this inspires you to do some DIY yourself ;)

Olivia is TWO!!

{Number shirt: c/o The Blue Envelope}

I cannot believe Olivia is TWO! These past two years have literally flown before my eyes.  From a sweet, rambunctious baby to a now sweet, sensitive, smart toddler she is just everything to me.  She fills our days with laughter and adds a touch of toddler craziness to our lives.  She's so sweet and loving and so hilarious! I can't imagine my life without her!  

{First birthday stats}

AGE TWO:

Height: 32" (approx. - we'll find out exact at Dr. next week)

Weight: 23.6 lbs. 

Favorite foods:  Butter, olives, fruit, pasta, and cheese

Hilarious phrases: "Oh my gosh!", "Dirty rat!", "Mo' tea Mommy!", "I con't" (from Frozen), "I did this" (I want to see this/ I want do this), "Hot tea mo' O's" (Warm milk & Cheerios) 

Funny words: Vivia (Olivia), Bubber (butter), BB (Brynnie), tea (milk), gawgies (doggies), O's (Cheerios), caulk (chalk), Papis (Penelopes), Bapa (Harper), valk (walk), vet (wet), guckies (cookies), bus! (truck) 

Favorite Activities: Bubbles, going for walks, painting, shopping, reading with Daddy, Play Doh, stickers, Library time, singing and dancing - especially to Taylor Swift and singing "Wheels on the bus", color sorting & singing the ABC's

She's talking so much and definitely repeats us all day.  It's also super fun when I whisper something to her and she can actually go tell the person what I said.  Case in point:  I gave her two Oreos, one for her and one for Daddy.  She came back and I asked her who ate her cookies.  She replied "Daddy."  So I said "that dirty rat!"... She goes downstairs and says "Daddy, dirty rat!" We almost died laughing.  Now whenever someone asks where her cookies went she says Daddy dirty rat! She's the funniest little thing.  She also requests ice cubes all the time saying "eyebow" for apparently the one time she got a boo boo on her eyebrow ;) 

She makes the funniest faces, her signature being a "cheeeese" face and a scowl learned from Daddy. She's a chapstick addict and will smack her lips to anyone with a tube of it ;) She's super polite, always saying "peas", "tank you", and "no tank you" - without prompting, which makes me so proud.  The "no tank you" is often used when being asked to finish her meal or come inside ;) 

Pretty sure every toddler picture is slightly blurry - why stay still, right? ;) 

More outtakes of our "two" photo session ;)...

The night before her birthday, I set up her gifts downstairs in our playroom and I was so excited for her to see everything!  I made the teepee for her (after hours of sewing and getting the poles to cooperate!) and we also gave her a few smaller gifts as well.   If you remember, I shared that on Christmas morning I set up her Kid Kraft kitchen and could hardly wait for her to see it.  She ended up walking up to it and saying, "No Mommy."  Oh toddlers ;) She loves it now but I still remember that.  That being said, I didn't have huge hopes for the excitement factor, just incase she did that again, but she loved it!  She climbed right in and was so excited! I'll have a full tutorial up on the teepee soon.  

We started her birthday with some fun waffles & grapefruit on the side...beary cute, I think ;)

Now onto more pictures from our park picnic & playground fun! Brynnie & my sister came with us and the girls had a blast! 

After the park, Olivia went down for a long nap while I baked these cupcakes.  Then we went outside when she woke up and played with bubbles, chalk and went on our swings! We had a sweet little pizza party for her at my sister's and opened gifts and blew out some candles ;)  

It was such a great day and I hope she enjoyed herself.  It's so fun to be TWO! Have a great day, my friends!