Friday, May 11, 2012

Doorway Playhouse

It's birthday time for the cute girl next door that has a crush on my son.  He had the honor of being the only boy invited to her birthday party.  Needless to say, we needed a great gift.  I thought about this but they are getting pretty big to fit under a card table playhouse.  Then I remembered I have a doorway puppet theater in my teaching stuff.  So, I sewed one up for her. 

If you can sew a curtain, you can make this too!

I bought an adjustable spring-tension rod (Walmart, under $3) that fit all the doorways in my house. (I was amazed at the different widths of doorways in my house! That's why the adjustable tension rod is a must.)  Rummaging through my fabric stash netted a large piece of fabric. I measured and cut it it to be slightly wider than the largest doorway in my house. Folding the top down and sewing it created a pocket for the rod.  Then I measured and cut out a square window. I used bias tape to finish around the top and sides.  I stitched a rectangle of material (the blue window sill) to the bottom of the window. I cut a piece of cardboard slightly smaller and tucked it under the window sill.  I glued the 3 remaining edges of the fabric under the cardboard and then hot glued the whole thing to the base curtain. I figured this would keep the window opening from sagging-- which it did!  Small curtains hanging on a dowel rod dressed up the window nicely.

I have to include something from my favorite store, right? I bought the fantastic clips at the Dollar Store. They have a convenient hole that allowed me to stitch them to the top.  Using felt sheets and paint, I created a "Home Sweet Home" sign. Then I made other signs that she can change out. Now she can have a Sweet Shop, Jewelry Store, Library, Pet Shop, or a Shoe Store.  Think that about covers the necessities, right? 


I'm picturing a few of these down a hallway creating the perfect Mini Mall!
Hope she likes it. I imagine I'll be making more in the future, because my kiddos are begging already.

No comments:

Post a Comment