Easy Cockpit Craft for A BunkBed

Today is the big starting day of the DietBet that I am participating in! Yea! 

I submitted my official weigh-in yesterday, so now the hard part begins.  

If you remember, I told you that I love bread and ice cream, but none of that for the next 28 days.

I got in my workout last night and finished off the evening with a post workout protein drink.  Yum! (cough cough NOT cough cough)

On Saturday, I whipped up a surprise for Little Bit's room.  It's something that I had planned on doing for a while, but had put it off. While I was at Lowe's snagging paint chips (I felt like I was doing something wrong!) I grabbed the supplies that I needed for this project.  It cost me a whipping $9.00. All I needed was a drop cloth.  

Little Bit and the Middle share a bedroom and it is all decked out in airplanes.

homemade propeller and faux barnwood letters

I made the letters that say FLY, and the hubs made the propeller out of a 2x8.

Yukon Charter sign

We also made the Yukon Charter sign.

But, here is the real problem

Just keepin' it real here, friends.  

This drives me nuts.  We do let Little Bit keep the stuffed animals on his bed, but he is supposed to make his bed each morning and straighten the animals.  And, recently, we had a huge closet clean out and there is not supposed to be anything under the bed.  There is a place for shoes and each boy has a couple of shelves to store anything they want.....IN THE CLOSET.

I had both boys clean out the junk under the bed and do a little general straightening up, so that I could install this:

Cockpit Flap

I love it! It serves two purposes really: it hides the messy bed, and gives Little Bit a cozy place to play and read books.  There are rope lights strung under the top bunk so it is pretty bright when they are on.

Little Bit loved it and it only took me about 30 minutes to do.

I measured the length that I wanted and the width; it was 59 wide x 31 tall and cut my drop cloth.
I laid it out so that one end and the bottom were the finished edges, to cut down on the work.

I used Heat 'n Bond for one end (image 1) and just left the top raw.

Did you know that you can iron masking tape on to fabric to get it to stay? After I cut a flap for the window, I ironed down masking tape to keep the edge from fraying (image 2).  I didn't want to sew anything on this bad boy.

Finally, I cut strips of iron on velcro and ironed them down along the top on the front of the fabric (images 3 & 4).  That is the side that is attached under the edge of the top bunk.

Once all that was complete, I laid it down on the floor and used a sharpie to draw the serial number, rivits, and "Pilot Only".

Window Flap

detail of Cockpit drop cloth

I did have to use hot glue to get the reverse side of the velcro to stay, but that was no biggie.

I'd say it was a successful 30-45 minutes! It was super easy.



And, so worth that smile.

Linking Up:

Shabby Creek Cottage House of Hepworths The 36th Avenue Design, Dining, and Diapers Funky Junk Interiors Tatertots and Jello Six Sisters Stuff Skip To My Lou Craft-O-Maniac That's What Che Said The DIY Showoff Under The Table And Dreaming Flamingo Toes Thrifty Decor Chick 
SNAP! Show & Tell Someday Crafts Somewhat Simple