January’s prize is boxed up and ready to ship tomorrow! Don’t miss your chance to be the February winner (see last week’s post for info)! Hope everyone is enjoying President’s Day for those in the USA who get it off (which was surprisingly Will and I both this year!) When I told Julius on Friday that it was a long weekend due to President’s Day his response was “present’s day?!” I had to burst his bubble and explain it to him. (I was really good and unlike my outburst at work I didn’t refer to it as “old white dude day”, which it basically is.) I followed the explanation of what the president does with, “but while I respect that the president has a hard job I don’t really celebrate President’s Day”. My response to his “why not?” was “because there has never been a women president which is extremely unfair”, though at the time there were about 50 reasons running through my head. Julius was very surprised to hear this and asked, “why not?!” At this point I’d opened a can of worms so I told him the very, very brief summary of patriarchy. Good to start them young. (Speaking of patriarchy, has anyone seen The Last Duel?!)
Speaking of starting young, Patricia’s new favorite word (as of today) is “no”. The full list of Patricia’s vocabulary (in the order I became aware of them) is “hat”, “ock” (sock), “kih kah” (kitty, her beloved toy), “mama”, “dada”, “mo” (more), “oh doe” (all done), “no”. She also says “baba” but I haven’t figure out what exactly that is referring to because she uses it all the time. She is so much more wild than Julius ever was and they’ve gotten to the point where they are both frustrated sharing with each other. I’m sad to see this day happen. The biggest source of contention lately is the tot tower. They used to both squish onto it together, but now Julius flat out refuses to use it (and sulks in a corner of the room) if Patricia joins him on it. I’m going to have to make another one… I guess this day was inevitable.
Julius coming through
I do love when my little guys play together the most. For Christmas I made them a playhouse to drape over the amazing Pikler triangle that Amy made for the kiddos! They love climbing on the Pikler triangle and now they love to turn it into a little playhouse. Every time put it away, it is taken out again immediately the next day. On the bright side it takes up very little space… unlike the cardboard rocket ship (no matter how fabulous). In fact, that distraction may have been the only thing that let me get away with disposing of the rocket ship without tears (there were many tears for the catbus). This little house I whipped up the night before leaving for Nashville, so it was pretty quick. I originally wanted to make a fabric house cover for a folding table for indoor play, but at some point I envisioned this little a-frame for the Pikler and it made so much more sense! I used scrap muslin (left over from a dye project in my costume course) and an old brown curtain I’d bought at the thrift store at some point (I have no idea what I planned to use it for). The window and door trim was some leftover 1.5″ white satin ribbon I had on hand.
Pikler Triangle House*
*Note our Pikler triangle is 33″ high x 38″ wide x 38″ long, you will need to adjust for your own measurements. Email me if you need help figuring out the dimensions, I’d be happy to help.
What you’ll need:
- 2 yards of fabric for house front and back (at least 40″ wide) (I used brown dyed cotton muslin)
- ~3 yards of fabric for roof (at least 42″ wide) (I used a brown curtain I found at the thrift store)
- 1.5″ trim window and door trim (I used satin ribbon)
- Fold house front and back fabric in half from selvedge to selvedge. Cut a 20″x34.65″ right triangle (with the right angle on the fold). When you unfold you should have a triangle with sides of 40″ each.
Fold fabric in half the long ways and cut triangles for front and back.
- Repeat for second triangle.
- Cut a 14″x10″ door in the bottom center of one of the triangles.
Cut door into center bottom of one of the triangles.
- Cut a door from brown material – note I cut mine so the door bottom was on the bottom of the curtain so I didn’t have to hem it. Door should be 12″15.5″ (includes 1″ seam allowance).
- Hem all sides of the door by pressing 1/2″ then folding on top an additional 1/2″ and stitching.
Hem all sides of door flap.
- Stitch the door to the inside of the house, right sides peeking out through the door.
Stitch door flap to house, .
- Cut one window in each side of the house, by folding front and back triangles in half, then marking a right triangle with legs of 5″. Cut along lines, and unfold to form diamond windows.
Cut out windows on folded front and back.
- Trim the windows by starting at a point and running ribbon (or other trim) just over the cut out for the window. When you reach a point fold ribbon down the next cut out of the window, repeating this fold at each corner. When you reach the place you started, tuck the unfinished end under one of the folds and trim. Pin. The ribbon trim should hide the unfinished ends of the window fabric.
In the topmost point of this picture note you can see the unfinished edge of the ribbon (right side) poking out. You’ll want to tuck this under when you sew so it isn’t seen.
- Stitch ribbon to house along the outside of the trim first, then along the inside.
- To trim the door, start at the bottom left outside of door by matching the unfinished edge of the door, with the unfinished edge of ribbon. Pin up the side, and w hen you reach the top, fold ribbon so it runs along the top of the door then fold again when it comes to the top right point and run down the door back to the unfinished edge. Pin and stich as in step 9.
- Hem bottom of both triangles by pressing under 1/2″ and then pressing under an additional 1/2″ (make sure to incorporate the door trim). Stitch.
Hem bottom of both triangles.
- Cut roof out of material to 42″x81″ (includes seam allowance – note I used the finished edges of the curtain so I had to do less sewing here).
- Hem all edges of the roof by folding under 1/2″ then pressing under another 1/2″ and stitching close to the first fold.
- Fold the roof in half and mark the center with pins.
- Pin the front of the house to the roof. Place the point of the front of the house 1.5″ from the edge of the roof fabric, along the center line. Pin 1/2″ from the point. Right side of the house front should face the wrong side of the roof.
- Pin down both sides of the triangle 1/2″ from the edge, leaving a 1″ overhang on the roof from your pins.
- Stitch.
Stitch leaving 1″ overhang of roof.
- Repeat steps 15-17 for back of house.
- To use, simply drape the house over your Pikler triangle!! It’s so easy even a 4 year old (or less) can set it up!
