a little diy project....

we (as in the hubs and pepaw) built the kids' play fort way back when amanda and anthony were toddlers.

since then it's moved from one house to another

been the scene of many accidents (including zach's broken arm)

many little army men have been sacrificed in the sandbox

it's been painted, torn down by the dog (long story) and reconstructed many times over

it's been a spy fort for the little boys

an overnight campsite for the twins

the swings have been replaced numerous times

and much more

a baby swing once hung from it and was used by every child in our family

it's been a staple in our backyard for many years

and just a simple source of entertainment (and abuse lol) for our kids.

through the years we've had various covers on the fort part of it

many of them were ripped to shreds by storms (or the kids)

this summer,

in the hopes of giving it - yet again - a little face lift, i decided to make a new canvas cover for it.

i was given some canvas fabric from a friend and i really didn't know what to do with it

there was a good bit of fabric, but it was leftover from previous projects.

even though what i was given was a lot, it was all cut up in various sizes.

in an effort to clean up some of my fabric stash (you know, so i could make room for more ;o)

i took all that canvas and cut it into squares, then i headed to the fabric store and bought some coordinating fabric and cut that into squares as well. 

as i started piecing it together i realized i was going to need a lot more fabric, but i didn't want to spend any more money - so i headed to my closet and grabbed some old jeans that were way too big for me now that i lost weight and

 i ripped those up and cut them into squares as well.

next, i just started sewing....and sewing

.....and sewing

whenever i got tired of sewing, i painted the fort

i thought it would fun to paint a chalkboard on the wall.

so, i bought some chalkboard spray paint...

then, i painted the whole thing with a fresh coat of white paint - ok, so i confess, i still need to touch up here and there, but i have more plans in store, so i will - pinky swear - finish painting it at some point.

i painted the floor of the fort and the steps grey

when i finished sewing the cover

i took some more jeans and trimmed around the edges and then cut them for a cute fringe trim.

next, i took the top part of the jeans and made them into pouches for the kids to put chalk and other treasures inside....

the end result....

(at least so far - i still want to spruce it up by painting the sandbox portion, adding new swings - yet again - and a few other odds and ends 

ready for many more years of entertainment, adventures and fun.

heck, even i like hanging out in there....too bad the kids always manage to find me.

total cost (so far)

$10 in fabric

$5 for the chalk board paint

$4 for the blue trim paint

the white and grey paint were leftovers from other projects

looks pretty good for cheap less than $20 make over

don't you think so?