Every kid loves an indoor tepee, but they don’t come cheap. However, one crafty mum managed to whip up her daughter’s dream DIY tepee on a budget.
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Melanie Lord from Lowestoft, Suffolk came up with the genius idea of building a tepee out of Poundland tote bags.
‘My little girl loves Disney, and loves reading books,’ Melanie explains. ‘She always loved going into tents and tepees at playgroup. I had looked into buying a Disney tepee for her birthday, but you were limited to only one character or film, and that’s not mentioning the £30 or £40 price tag.’
So Melanie decided to take matters into her own hands and make a DIY tepee. ‘I saw that Poundland had released new Disney tote bags, and I’d previously used them for canvases and pillows,’ explains Melanie.
The mum brought seven Disney tote bags from Poundland for the project for £7. She then opened up six of the tote bags and stitched them together in a row two bags high.
With three dowels she made a tripod and tied them together at the top. You can either buy these new from amazon or use old broom handles.
‘I cut the handle of the bag in half to use to attach it to the wooden dowels. I used six tote bags to go around the dowels and one at the top,’ says Melanie.
She added the bags around the tepee and used the handles of the bags to attach to the dowels. The seventh tote bag she cut at the bottom and placed over the top of the tepee and hand-stitched it to the rest of the tepee.
‘To neaten up any overhang from the bags, I used a staple gun from Poundland to attach it to the dowels to keep it secure,’ says Melanie. ‘The best thing is it is easily transported from place to place as the dowels can be gathered together due to the tripod layout.’
Melanie added the finished tepee to her daughter Disney bedroom, furnishing it with a blanket and cushions.
‘Jessica loves her tepee especially as I added battery-powered lights to it,’ adds Melanie. ‘She reads her books and snuggles her teddies in there. It’s wonderful to see my little girl play with something I have lovingly created for her.’
Tom Church, co-founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, says: 'Melanie’s creation is so inventive and fun, and just shows that with a bit of imagination, you can save tons on normal high street prices by crafting things yourself.'
Related: See how DIY fan transforms bland baby changer into an on-trend furniture piece
Will you be treating your little one to this thrifty DIY tepee Poundland hack?
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