Wigwam or Tepee?

Last year I made the grandkids 3 hobby horses on broomsticks for the summer holidays. This year I made them a wigwam. My son called it a tepee.  My 4 year old grandkids  called it a tent and had no idea of a cultural background. Wild west or "Cowboy and Indian" films obviously not on CBBC or Tiny Pop or these other channels??

It was made of 4 of my husbands best giant thick bamboo poles (not needed as we were only going for one row of runner beans this year) and four cloth triangles. I used one half of a white king sized duvet and a long length of thin black cotton dress material (donated free to me) from my stash. No great loss as it was so thin it was no good for dresses and I had already had 3 blouses out of it.  So cost nothing except a few afternoons puzzling out the mechanics.  Secured at top with string in a hem and made a door way by splitting one triangle and putting a facing on it with odd ribbons sewn in to fasten up.  I did sew heavy washers into the corners thinking I could use the wire hoops from the veg netting to pin the sides but the ground was too hard and this was last piece of green grass in the garden.  So I made a hem in the excess material round the bases and threaded in some old roofing battens from the scrap/fire wood pile on three sides which held it out nicely as long as it was not too windy. Old bed covers for sitting on  and stretching out to provide a play patio.

It went down very well, as you can see the giant lego stuff was out here and not all over lounge floor to trip up Granddad. Teddy spent time in the tent and often came flying out. It was a good shady place to send one fractious girl with a digital device who was tired, hot and wanted to watch a cartoon when we were all having a cup of tea and chatting and did not want to go indoors.  Not strong enough for the 18 month old of substantial proportions to practice his standing up skills though.

On reflection how I may improve it next year I did think I would keep an eye out for those kids duvets in the charity shops with the garish characters and it may be something they relate to. I think the kids would like that and it would thicken the sides up a bit. I would also fasten the triangle seams to the poles on the insides it was a pain re lining it up each time it got a bit out of line.

They are all gone to the west Country to annoy their other grand parents now. Poles returned to garden stash, string rewound in the shed, wigwam rolled up and stashed. Hobby horses stacked in corner.  Left the bunting up tied to the bushes and fences for a while.  Bit like after Christmas when you take down the tree.

Come back next summer!  But please get out of nappies - my bin has a stench all of its own and it is not collected for another week!!