Tee Pee Redeux

When Colton was first moving into his "big boy room," I figured a teepee was a must.  Obvi.  So, I scoured the Internet for no-sew options and created this:
                                              
As much fun as it looks in that picture, the poor guy was pretty flawed.  For one, it fell down constantly.  And over time, the cuts that I had made in the fabric became more and more frayed.  And the ribbon tie thing that I had created was coming apart at the seams.  Oh, and those dots were getting on my nerves, as they just seemed to add to the amateurish nature of that thing...at least in my eyes.
So, I did bit more Internet searching, kind of just trusted my instincts and came up with another, much steadier, much easier, much better tee pee for Colton's room.

Instead of starting with garden stakes like the last time, I used 1x8 boards that I purchased at Home Depot for 99 cents each!  I had the nice man at Home Depot cut off 2 feet from each board, so they were only 6 feet tall each and then took them home.  I drilled a hole near the top of each piece (if I had to do it again, I would probably drill the holes a little further down next time).  With the holes drilled, I set up my stakes as I wanted them to lay. And then I got out some twine and threaded it through each of the holes.  Once they were all set, I wrapped the twine around a few times and tied it as tightly in place as I could. By the way: you're going to need someone to help with this process because it's pretty much impossible to hold them all up on your own and do the weaving/tying.

With the frame set, I relocated it to Colton's room for the final assembly.  I had bought another canvas drop cloth just like my first go round.  But this time instead of cutting it a bunch of different places, I just folded it into a triangle shape and cut one arc out of the top to create an opening.  And then I was able to drape it over the top of the tee pee and let it hang.  By the way, I did have to collapse the frame a bit, so the canvas could get on, and then set it up again.

And then I just started winging it!  I pulled and tucked and rotated the canvas until it was in tee pee form.  I used my trusty glue gun to secure the canvas to the wooden stakes once I got it just right.  And when I stepped back, I had what was starting to look like a real tee pee.  I used my glue gun again to glue the front corners down to the sides, creating an opening of sorts.

Full disclosure: there is small space in the back where the canvas doesn't reach totally to the ground. I debated using some spare fabric I had on hand to create a band around the entire bottom that would erase the gap, but I got lazy!  So far, the boys don't seem to care, but if they do...or if you do...feel free to take the extra step!

Anyways, once the teepee was structurally sound and all, I decided it needed a bit of snazzing up. Colton's curtains are also on the replacement list, so I cut them up and used a strip to create a navy band at the top.  And then I used some ribbon I recycled from his first tee pee to add a bit more fun.  And here's the final product:

Bonus points: it's actually much bigger than than the original tee pee.  Both boys can fit in there, and have loved playing in it!!!