Tree Tent: Free Sewing Pattern and Tutorial

Sew a whimsical tent that can be tied to any tree and thrown into the wash when dirty!

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My wonderful mother-in-law recently grabbed me a giant roll of cotton fabric from a yard sale.

The fabric was covered in green leaves, and was screaming to be made into a tree tent for the kids!

This is a beginner-friendly project, and can be made to fit onto any tree!

It doesn’t require anything except for fabric and preferably some tent pegs.

For the tent pegs, you’ll want the kid that have a hook on the top to help catch the loops that secure the tent to the ground. Especially helpful on a windy day! (you’ll want something like these!)

The tent is very easy to attach to a tree — just tie the top of the tent to the base of the tree, then stretch and secure the bottom with some tent pegs.

Since the tent is the hard structure part of the tent, this tent is very compact to store away, and can easily be thrown into the wash when dirty!

If you choose a nice cotton fabric instead of a polyester fabric, it’ll greatly reduce any hair-static while kids are crawling around playing in it!

It’s the perfect tent for an impromptu picnic!

This would be a perfect project for a couple of inexpensive thrift store sheets to use as your fabric!

Otherwise, you’ll need to purchase a lot of fabric. It is a tent, after all.

Another wonderful thing about this tent is that as long as you make the ties long enough on the top, it will be easy to adjust to fit nearly any tree! Great to take along with you to parks or on nature walks!

Now that I’ve told you about why I love this tent, let’s get right into how to make it!

Step 1: Measure Your Tree

While it’s easy to get this tree tent to fit any tree (just make the top straps super long!), you should still have a general idea of what tree it will be mostly adhered to.

Don’t worry. The measurements are really simple to make and use. I generally detest having to measure things instead of just using a printable pattern, but this isn’t difficult to do.

First, measure the trunk of the tree. This is how wide you’ll want the gathered top of the tent to be.

Then, measure from where you plan to attach the top of the tent to the trunk, all the way down to the ground — at a diagonal. (visualize how the tent will lay!)

Lastly, measure where you want the bottom of the tent to go, all the way around the tree.

I’ve made a chart to help you further visualize these measurements!

Your #1 measurement (the trunk) is going to be how wide the top of your tent will be. You will achieve this by gathering your fabric. (tutorial below!)

Your #2 measurement (the ground) is going to be how wide the bottom of your tent will be. No gathering or shaping the bottom.

Your #3 measurement (how “tall” the tent is) is how long your tent will be.

Step 2: Measure and Cut Your Fabric

This tree tent is just made with some basic square/rectangle shapes.

The first thing you’ll want to do is cut long pieces of fabric and sew them together until you achieve a large piece of fabric that measures your #2 and #3 measurements.

In other words, the width of your fabric should be how wide you want your tent to lay on the ground (#2 measurement).

The length of your fabric should be how tall you want your tent to be (#3 measurement).

These are going to be some large pieces of fabric to cut. I laid mine outside on the grass and cut it that way!

After I cut my first length of fabric, I laid it next to my bolt as I unrolled it, using my initial cut as my “ruler” for the rest of my cuts.

I did this until I had enough fabric for my width (a little extra width or length is always just fine!).

Sew your pieces of fabric together until your tent portion is large enough and roughly fits your measurements you too. (better for it to be larger than your measurements than smaller!)

Step 3: Gather the Top of your Tent

Next, you’ll want to gather the top of your tent.

Switch your sewing machine to the longest possible stitch length and sew across the top of your tent (the top width side of your tent).

Pull the thread to gather up your fabric.

Keep gathering until the fabric measures the circumference of your tree trunk.

Then, you’ll want cut a rectangle to cover up your gathered edge and to add extra durability to your tent.

Cut a rectangle that measures the length of your gathered edge, and that is plenty wide enough to cover both sides of your gathered edge. (see photo below)

Hem the short edges of this rectangle, then lay the fabric right sides together and sew over your gathered edge. (see photo below).

Sew SLOWLY, especially if your gathered edge is super thick. If it’s too thick, you might have to sew this portion by hand.

Fold this rectangle over the gathered raw edge, and sew it again on the back side.

While sewing the back, make sure to fold and hem the raw edge of your rectangle!

Lastly, hem any remaining raw edges on your tent (all the un-gathered edges!).

Step 4: Make all the Ties

Next, we’ll cut some rectangles to make ties with for your tent.

The ties are what you’ll secure your tent with while setting it up!

First, make two nice long ties. You’ll want each tie to be long enough to go around the trunk with enough length left over to tie it tightly.

Then, make as many little ties as you will need to secure the bottom of the tent, about 8 or so — more if your tent is super large!

All of the ties will be constructed in the same way.

First, fold the tie lengthwise in half, right sides together. Sew along the edge, about a 1/4″ seam allowance.

Turn each tie out. A safety pin will help turn it right side out. Fold it in half with the seam in the center, fold down the raw edges on each end, and sew once more in the center to help hold the tie flat.

Lastly, attach all your ties to the tent. The two long ones will be sewn to the top of the tent — one on each side.

The smaller ties will be folded in half to create a loop before sewing them evenly to the bottom. Start by attaching one loop to each bottom outer corner, then work on spacing them evenly from there!

How to attach your Tree Tent to a Tree

Once you have finished your tree tent, attach it to a tree!

Setting up your tree tent is very easy to do.

First, tie the top of the tent to the trunk of the tree. If there are any little branches on the tree — those will help hold it up, but they will also prevent the tent from opening up fully, so if using a branch, plan accordingly to where the front opening of your tent will be.