Felt Playhouse Introduction

There has been a myriad of playhouses out in the internet world that I have been admiring for some time now.  I've been meaning to make one for the kiddies for a VERY long time.  Here's one on Homemade by Jill's Blog that I absolutely love!

So since I started blogging again, I thought I would do another tutorial on how to make one of these cute houses for your kids that slide over a table (it's supposed to be a card table, but who has the time to open up a card table every time your kids want to build a fort?).  I'm making one for my dining room table.

So if you want to join me on my sew-a-long, please feel free to!  A few friends of mine will be joining in, so if they allow me to take pictures of their process, I'll post it here! :) Again, bear with me as this is the first time making one, so I'm sure there will be errors to come.. and I'm sure there are better ways to make one, but this is my way. :)

1) Let's start by taking some measurements.  You'll need the Width, Length, and Height of the table that you want your playhouse to go on top of.

2) Let's figure out how much felt you're going to have to buy.  I go to Joann Fabrics because I can use a 40% off (sometimes 50% off) coupon on one cut of fabric.  Felt doesn't go on sale that often.  The cheaper felt (non-wool) I think comes in a 72" wide bolt.  So let's do some math here.  You will need...

2 of these

2 of these

1 of these- perhaps in a different color felt?

Do you like my doodling?  Can you see the photoshop expertise? :)  Yup, that's about the best I can do. Let's add a 1" seam allowance to each edge (the bottom edge can have one too just to make the bottom neat if you'd like, but I'm too lazy to sew when unnecessary).  For me this looks like 36.5W, 60.25L, 30.5H.  Now here comes my handy dandy doodling expertise again...

I try to maximize yardage here so you don't have to buy too much felt.  I figure since it's felt and just a playhouse, you don't need to worry about the grain and can cut the pattern in any direction.  I calculated that I need about 2 and 3/4 yards of fabric to be able to cut my 4 sections out like the above doodle.  There will be a little excess that I can use for detailing.  I wanted the roof to be a different color, so I just bought another yard and few inches for the roof piece.

Ok, hope that gets you started to figure out how much fabric you need to purchase.  So go out and buy your fabric!! If you feel like you don't have a creative bone in your body, ask your child to draw out 4 walls of a house.. give him/her some suggestions and you'll have your blueprint ready to go!  I'll show you our blueprint on my next post!