I’ll call this series of posts Project Playroom because it is a work in progress, the making of a DIY Play Market staring with the awning. Lots of little projects leading up to one big reveal. I just have to pace myself and work on things as I feel up to it! We took the old LBB office and cleared it all out into a much bigger office. It was going to be the nursery but those plans are on hold for a bit until I am cancer-free and we figure out how we want to add to our family. So now it’s my new “writing room” and Boo’s new playroom….we needed a room just for that almost-four-foot-tall Barbie dream house she got for Christmas.

Boo loves her kitchen and she’s always wanted a market/grocery store to go along with it…..so I thought I’d devote one small corner to just that. Brett found this old awning that someone had tossed out:

I took off the existing awning to reveal the frame and Brett got out the power tools to make it a tad smaller. He’s always so great when I ask him to do little projects….you know I love my power tools, but I’m not feeling quite as strong as I used to so I don’t trust myself with the saws right now….I’d like to keep all my fingers and limbs if I can:

I used my seam ripper to take apart the existing awning cover. This is the easiest way to make a new pattern! Just take apart something old, trace it onto new fabric, and then put it back together the same way! That’s how even the biggest of companies do it!

I bought some bright yellow canvas, bias tape, and thread:

I traced all my awning pieces onto the new canvas:

I sewed the pieces together and tested the fit of the awning on the frame. Looks good!

I made a little template so that I could cut the bottom into a scalloped edge:

I stitched white bias tape all around the raw scalloped edges:

The finished edges!

I used a simple freezer paper stencil to add the word “MARKET” to the front. The letters could be cut out by hand but my Silhouette machine cut them out in under a minute. You can see more about freezer paper stenciling here in my beanbag tutorial.

I used a sponge to dab white fabric paint onto my letters:

While the letters were still slightly damp, I carefully peeled off my freezer paper stencil and touched up the letters with a small paint brush:

Brett hung the market awning up in the playroom. Now I’ve got to create the actual market and stock it with lots of goodies!

I just ordered this antique milk scale off of Ebay the other day to hang in her market!  Isn’t it cool? It will be the perfect addition.

Click here to check out Project Playroom for all of our related projects!