Kiki likes most children loves a play tent, as soon as you make a little den full of cushions and blankets she dives in. I really like the canopy style tents that are often used over beds and wanted to make one myself. While trying to work out a pattern I thought wouldn’t it be fun if I can work out a super simple way of making a play tent, something anybody can do whether you own a sewing machine or not. Have a look at the video below to see what I came up with, I had a little help from Kiki and Kermit in this one :)

It really is that simple!! You have the play tent made in under 5 minutes and it’s completely portable and super easy to store away. I hung the tent from a hook we have in the ceiling and outside I hung it from the washing line but a tree branch would work too. If you don’t have a ceiling hook and you don’t fancy drilling one into a beam have a look on Google for self adhesive heavy duty ceiling hooks, there are ones that can hold up to 15 kg.

Put some cushions inside your tent to drape the material on, the wider you make it it bigger the tent. As you can see in the video there is enough space inside for both Kiki and me. I must say it is rather comfy lying in the tent, especially outdoors, looking up to the sky and listening to the birds sing.

All you need to make the tent is a large piece of material, I bought 2 meters of 1.4 meter wide (thats 6.5 by 5 foot) double gauze at Cloth&Candy . It’s a lovely light weight cotton in a mauve colour with a little metallic accent. You could also use a bedsheet, a light weight blanket or even a duvet cover, as long as it is roughly 2 meters long and 1.5 meters wide. The other thing you need is a large embroidery hoop, mine is 30 cm in diameter (12 inch) I had one of these in my craft stash but you can buy the large wooden rings online on Amazon, Ebay and craft shops. The last thing you need is a piece of yarn/string/ribbon I used 1.5 meters of beige Zpagetti yarn from Hoooked but this length depends on how heigh your ceiling are or branch you want to hang the tent from.

Doesn’t the tent look even better in the garden? Especially now the bluebells are in full bloom, it looks like a little secret hideaway :)

Because there is no sewing involved the tent is not only super easy to make but you can also use the material once you are done with it!

You see these canopy style tents/drapes used a lot over kids beds and cots too, it sure looks very pretty but I don’t think I would do this as in my eyes that will be a bit of a strangulation risk. I don’t think I can trust Kiki not to hang from it in the middle of the night or wrap herself in the fabric I rather just use the canopy/tent as a play tent where I can keep an eye on her.

No sew, super easy, play tent tutorial by www.hestershandmadehome.com

I hope you guys are all keeping well and do let me know if you have a request for a future tutorial. All my content is rather a lot kids focused at the moment but thats because I’m building a lot of things to keep Kiki entertained now we can’t go to playdates and playgroups. Do let me know if you want to see something else.

Keep well and keep safe, xx Hester