Camping indoors

Poor Ella has been very sad that we have not been tent camping in a long time.  If you remember we tried our hand at tent camping May 2010 and it turned disastrous.  Read about that trip here.  Ever since that trip Ella has been "into" camping.  First is started with having an obsession with building camp fires outside.  Then last Christmas she was giving a sleeping bag by her Granna and Granddad.  So then she was all about wanting to use that.  So my brain got to spinning.  She needs to have an indoor tent.  She and I took a trip to Lowes and for about $5.00 we bought three 10' PVC pipes (1-1/2" thick) and two PVC couplers (to attached a 4' and a 2' pipe together).  Then we went to Target and picked out a cheap twin bed sheet (we settled on green since it was Stone's Christmas money and he would play in it too). 

I found a tutorial online here at Obsessively Stitching.  Basically you take five 6' PVC poles and a bed sheet, some sewing time, and voila, A TENT!  I did a few modifications to mine.  I wanted the poles to run along the inside of the tent to have a seamless outside look.  I also plan on hope to (haven't finished this part)  sewing patchwork of random mix match fabrics along the bottom of the tent to give it some cool looks.  I want to spray paint the top of the PVC or wrap them with fabric AND sew some sort of interior pocket for her to keep a few books and a flashlight. 

 Matt and Ella did an excellent job at cutting PVC pipe. 

 Ella was THRILLED to get the chance to "camp out" in her tent.  This is day #2 sleeping in the tent.  It actually made for a great quiet time too.  She piled into her tent on her pallet with some books and a few toys and played successfully for about an hour. 

Stone gets so excited about it that he wants to destroy it.  He gets inside the tent and throws himself around and laughs.  The PVC was used to make it light weight and easy for Ella to set it up.  Draw back is Stone likes to run into the walls.  It's safer then solid wood poles if it falls on top of him, I guess. 

Everyone loves the tent.  I made mine a bit bigger than the tutorial because I knew both kids would eventually want to be in it at the same time.  So that made me have to use the fabric from the bottom sheet too.  Somehow I got my triangle shapes a bit off so it turned out kind of wonky in places.  I don't know how that happened, but well it did.  That is why the band of patch work fabric will be necessary to make the bottom even.  I will also reinforce the door opening eventually.  Ella was ready to sleep in it and I was annoyed at the bottom fabric being off so I decided I needed to take a break from it for a while.  The best $15.00 I've spent in a long time.  Ella is ready for a real camp out because of course she can not have a real campfire in her bedroom.