little feet living: Everything Is Better In A Fort

From ARMOMMY.COM

A birthday is a big deal in this household, at least for one little boy turning 7! This year I finally made him the fort he's been asking for forever. I first found the idea on Jones Design Blog, that a friend had given one of her boys for their birthday. She thankfully had a link to the tutorial on making your own fort kit and printables that came with it! What a great idea! (Click here for the tutorial and printables.) So this past year I happened to find this pirate fabric that I just fell in love with. If I am going to fall in love with fabric it is definitely going to be Michael Miller's line of children's fabric; Out to Sea!! Instead of using sheets; which is much easier; for this project I used 2- 2 & 1/2 yds x 44 inch wide pieces of my favorite fabric.

This was quite simple, just taking a bit more time. I used everything armommy.com calls for, I just switched up the twin sheet for 5 yards of fabric; 2- 2 1/2 yd pcs. Here's how I did the "sheet" step. (I apologize for the lack of pictures, hopefully you get what I explain on the center)

Sewing Up the Fabric:

1. I washed and dried the fabrics in cold water

2. Ironed each piece (while listening to Give them Grace)

3. Laid them out on the floor right sides together and pinned along one side lengthwise

4. Sew in 1 inch, up the pinned side, this leaves room to make a nice finish in the middle

5. Iron the center seam (on the wrong sides) opening and folding each piece of the middle showing the right side of the fabrics;then fold under 1/4 inch; so each side is showing the right side fabric and then fold again so the raw edges are tucked under, pinning as you iron. (see image, it should look like this)

6. Making a nice hem in the middle on each side, sew each side of the middle up so the middle looks like this:

The center where the 2 fabrics meet should look like this.

7. Once the middle is finished you can tackle folding the outer edges folding over 1/2 inch ; iron and again fold that over 3/4 inch; iron and pin.

8. Sew each side up then pin your ribbon in place for ties ( I used 8 ties; 12 inches long; each at a corner and middle) sewing at the center of the ribbon. reinforce by back stitching a few times.

Then enjoy your fort!

My favorite part was the hand painted craft bag with the cool pirate map my husband hand painted from a clip art he found; then he added beautiful color! LOVE!!