Fort Building Kit

© shoutingforha

Are you ready for a new craft project?  Great!  I've got a really fun one today.

I'm going to show you how to make a Fort Building Kit just like the one I made as a Christmas present for my six-year-old niece.  Don't tell my boy, but I made him a more manly version as well.  I got the idea from Saltwater-Kids. 

My niece is just at the age where she wants to have a little space away from her two younger siblings.  This is especially true when her best friend comes over to play.  It's can be incredibly hard to do big girl things when your three-year-old sister and one-year-old brother keep pestering you.  My hope is that the Fort Building Kit will allow her to create her own special place that she can play.

Here's what you need:

© shoutingforha

I picked up two big sheets at my local Goodwill for $1.99 a piece.  My niece is all girl so I tried to select some that were especially pretty.

© shoutingforha

I cut strips of cloth from one of my hubby's old T-shirts to make some tie-downs.  I sewed one strip onto the each of the 4 corners and the midpoint of each side of the sheets.  

© shoutingforha

The rope is simple clothesline rope that I picked up at the dollar store along with the clothespins.  To make it a little more fun, I dyed the clothespins by letting them soak for a few minutes in a glass of water that I tinted with a few drops of food coloring.  Once they had soaked up a little color, I laid the pins out on a few sheets of paper towels to dry.

© shoutingforha

The big metal clips are from Home Depot and only cost $0.99 each.  The smaller clips and the flashlight were dollar store purchases as well. 

© shoutingforha

I made a drawstring bag from one of my hubby's old dress shirts to store the rope, clips and flashlight. 

© shoutingforha

The storage bag was made with more of the shirt fabric and a complimentary scrap I had in my fabric pile.  The handles are made from an old piece of grosgrain ribbon.  I liked the idea of using fabric that I already had on hand, and since my Christmas shopping has been done for weeks, I had more than enough time to get it done. 

If you can't sew or simply don't have the time, you could easily use a bag of your choice instead.  The whole point is to have some sort-of bag to keep all the fort making supplies in one place.

I hope you will make this Fort Building Kit for someone that you love.  It will provide hours of fun and costs less than $10 to make.  What could be better than that?