diy – fort building kit

January 12, 2012ernie

Hello friendly Friends! For Christmas this last year we gave the boys a fort building kit (because we love them and I was tired of my blankets and pillows being abused daily 🙂 Anyways, I thought you might enjoy a little tutorial on how to put one together for your little ones! Here’s what you’ll need:

2 twin sheets (somehow I didn’t have any extras laying around, so I got a couple new ones at Walmart for $5 a piece)
flashlights
suction cups with hooks
clips (big and small)
small length of rope
glow sticks
old t-shirt (or other fabric that won’t fray when cut)
sewing machine with very basic sewing skills (you know that’s how I roll!)

You can add other items if you like or take some away. Other than sheets, all of our items can be found at the dollar store! Okay, wondering what we did to the sheets? Let me show you!

Alrighty, go ahead and take you old t-shirt and cut it into strips. I also cut the bottom hemmed part off and didn’t use it. I cut straight across the shirt and then cut up the side seams of the shirt. You will need 8 strips for each sheet.

Fold each strip in half (mine measured about 8 – 9 inches when folded) and sew a wide zig zag stitch down the middle. This is just to keep the fabric together. Don’t worry about being too neat; your kids really won’t care 🙂

Make sure to backstitch on the ends so nothing unravels.

Now, take your sewn strip and make a loop. Sew loops onto each corner of the sheet. Then sew a loop onto the center of each side of the sheet. Each sheet should have 8 loops in all, four on corners, four between corners, all on the edges.

Okay, fold you sheets and put all your supplies into a bag (we used a pillowcase because why not?) Present it to your kiddos and soak in the goodness of knowing you are a crafty mama (or dad – Branden did all the sewing for this project!) who just earned yourself a few extra hugs and kisses 🙂 Then help your little ones build their dream fort!