Princess Tent Tutorial

How to make a dreamy, girly Princess Tent

Ever since I saw the movie The Holiday, I've wanted to make one of beautiful, girly tents. Here is my interpretation over a little bed that is in my little girls playroom. You could also do this over the head of a bed, or just in the middle of a room, which would be so amazing! I wish we had a room big enough for one this size!  

What you will need:

*A large lampshade (I get crazy sometimes, I just took it off the Living Room Lamp!)

*Various fabrics and lace...

{I used 2 long lacy recycled curtain swags, vintage bed sheets, crochet lace, and an old wedding dress from a thrift store

*heavy cotton cord

*sewing needles

*screw eye hooks

And to gussy it up:

*twinkly white lights

*ornaments to hang down from the center, glittery stars and hearts, silk flowers, check your Christmas ornaments for some great things to hang!

1. Fold over edge of short end of swags (or other fabric yardage) and run a gathering stitch. Gather up and stitch it around the bottom edge of the shade, one for each side.  Gather up the short end of sheet and stitch around the back of the shade.

2. You can get old wedding dresses from thrift stores, very inexpensive, and take them apart. Use the train, lace, beads, this tent would be beautiful made out of a long satin beaded train. Gather up 80's style puffy sleeves into rosettes and sew them around the lamp shade. I used lace from the bottom of the train to swoop around the inside of the back and around the bottom rim of the shade. Vintage flowery sheets will also work great.

3. To Hang: I used 3 eye hooks screwed into the ceiling. You will need to make sure you hit a stud in the ceiling so it's nice and sturdy and will not fall down on your children!!!
{It will be heavy once you get all your material sewn on.}
I used heavy twine looped around the top of the shade and through the eye hooks. To make the sides sort of swoop up, I just used 1 more eye hook on each side and used clear fishing line to pull up some of the swag.


4. Embellish - Now for the fun part! It's easier to embellish after you have the tent hung up.  Gathered up some scraps of floral fabric into flowers and stitch them around the shade. Take old lace and sew it to the back of the inside. I also hung white lights around the top which look really cute at night to read under.

The girls helped with glittering hearts and stars to hang down from the center to look up at.  Make it your own with what you have ~ let me know if you have any questions!

~Boy Version~
How to make a Rocket Ship Tent

I think a boy version made into a rocket ship with painted Styrofoam balls for planets would look so cool!  OR for a vintage style "Cowboys and Indians" theme, make it into a Tepee...


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