Submitted by jgettings on Sat, 01/04/2014 - 16:01

I saw this at the perfect time for deciding to make one for my niece for Christmas. It was too cute of an idea to not make!! She turns 3 at the end of January and it's perfect-sized for her. From what I hear, she threw a tantrum when her parents told her she had to stop playing with it because it was naptime! I'm hoping that she will share with her brother when he's older (he's about 7mos now) and they can play with it together.

I apologize for the lack of pictures, I got the buntings done about one day before we had to pack it up to head out for the holidays, so there wasn't much time for pictures!

For the hutch part, I attached each side with bolts and wing nuts so that it could be knocked down for transport (especially since we have smallish cars and had to drive an hour to gift it, and the recipient had to drive 2 hours back to their house!). I added some holes just under the dowel (lining up with the holes in the base when knocked down) so that it could be connected again as a shorter version for transport. This actually worked out pretty well and you can almost use the dowel as a handle when it's like that. The only issue I ran into with that was once I put the lower velcro on for the theater curtains, they would hit when trying to collapse it and we wound up losing one in transport.

Buntings weren't too hard, but I've been sewing much longer than I've been building! I did have some issues getting the theater curtain to lay right.

Built from Plan(s)
Estimated Cost
50
Estimated Time Investment
Afternoon Project (3-6 Hours)
Finish Used
Minwax stain, I think it was some kind of "oak" color. Also, chalkboard spray paint for the chalkboard piece. The signs are foamboard with sharpie drawn on and electrical tape to cover the raw edges (I wish I had some white electrical tape!!). Most of the fabric I used was from those little "quilting" squares since my supply of scrap fabric is seriously lacking!
Recommended Skill Level
Intermediate