Today I have something special to show you. It is a project for our grandson's third birthday that my husband and I have been working on for a couple of months.
I found this tent pattern on IKEA's web site and thought it would be a great reading tent for the little guy. My husband agreed, although he wanted some improvements I wasn't sure I could pull off. Eventually, we compromised. I would do the fabric cover similarly to what the pattern showed and he would do the woodworking and make improvements to the frame.
In February we went to the fabric store together. Roger requested a space theme, so we looked for starry night fabric. But my sewing machine was in Denver, so for the next step I was on my own.
Back in Denver I drew up a rocket ship pattern, fused it to the tent fabric and machine embroidered it. After I sewed the tent tube together, I realized it was too big for a house. The size is fine for an IKEA store, but it needed to be cut down a little for home use. The final touch was to embroider "U.S.S. Dracen" on the rocket ship.
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| The U.S.S. Dracen before I cut all the loose thread. |
Last month I brought the fabric portion of the tent home and we went to the hardware store looking for wood for the frame. Roger did a mock up using slats that he hand joined, but it was a little too small. It was also heavy. So, he came up with a much more innovative frame using dowels seated in slats with an with a bolt embedded into the top dowel and thread through the side dowels. It is much sturdier than the IKEA example, which was held together with tape.
Of course, by the time the frame was finished, I was back in Denver. Roger made me this great video to show me how it all goes together.
Yesterday, Roger delivered the final product to the birthday boy. I think he likes it!
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