Sidamo and Nora's big gift this Christmas was a play tent I made for them. They love, love, love it, but I'm not feeling the love right now. Instead of springing the $12.95 for a pattern, I decided to call upon my ancient (and inadequate) geometry skills to design the tent myself. To be fair, the tent itself actually did turn out pretty nice. It's a uniform and appropriate shape, and with the exception of the bottom hem which remains to be done, it looks almost professional.
Until you put it up, that is. At that point, you realize I didn't quite think through the whole upright factor. It bunches and falls and requires almost constant adult supervision, which is kinda contrary to the purpose of a dedicated play space for kids.
Right now I'm thinking I'll construct a base out of PVC (I know, I know) and joiners. Then at the top I need to do something to secure the tent pole sleeves to the poles, and something to hold the poles themselves together more precisely. Until then, the cool new Christmas gift lives in the closet.
But at least they had a morning of fun with it, and I learned some lessons for next year. That's worth something, right?
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1 comment:
That's awesome! I got one of those fabric play tents--the ones where you just kind of shake it out and it holds the shape then fold it up when not in use--for the boys 2 Christmases ago and it is still going very strong (but I take it out not everyday otherwise they stop playing with it), and esp fun hooked up with an extra tube tunnel. However, it collapses within seconds typically, which is pretty annoying, but now the boys can pop it back into place without my help (they love to stick their heads out the top and walk around the house like this as if it's a costume!).
A friend of ours bought them a tent last summer, the kind with plastic poles, and the boys broke it beyond repair in about 3 minutes. So sad! Awwwww, poor friend.
So you see talented mama, these are not so easy to make for little ones! :)
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