Doorway Puppet Theater

I made Sophie some monster puppets recently but she didn’t have a puppet theater to use with them. Robbie could’ve built her one but I really didn’t want a large, bulky puppet theater that would be hard to move around and we’d have to find a place to store. This doorway puppet theater was the perfect solution! It easily mounts in a doorway with a tension rod and can be taken down and stored when not in use. Here’s what you’ll need to make one of your own:

Supplies:

Main Fabric
Contrasting fabric for curtains and trim
2 Tension Rods
2 safety pins
Sewing machine & notions

Directions:

Measure the width of your door frame and cut out the amount of material you’ll need, making sure you have extra for seam allowances. Then hem around all sides.

Fold the top over about 3″ to make a casing for the tension rod.

Cut a window for the puppets to peek through. Mine measures 20″ wide x 17″ long.

Cut contrasting fabric for the curtains in a size that will fit your window. Each of my curtains measured 20″ wide (same width as the window itself) and 20″ long (slightly longer than the window). The extra width allows for gathering which will reduce it to about half the size.

Hem all sides of the curtain and gather the top. Then stitch the curtain to the top of the window.

Trim the window with contrasting fabric. This is where it gets tricky! It wasn’t like typical bias tape that goes around the edges since this was an inside edge.

After racking my brain about it for hours, I finally cut 3 1/2″ strips of fabric slightly longer than the 4 sides of the window, ironed in 1/4″ on each long side, folded in half and ironed again to make a 1.5″ strip, and sewed the edges together. I made 8 of these — 4 for the back and 4 for the front.

I first sewed them to the back of the theater, covering the top of the curtain, then to the front. That way, if I didn’t stay perfectly on track the stitches would be visible on the back and not the front of the theater. I folded the corners under to make them look mitered as with traditional bias tape.

I know there has got to be an easier way to do this! Someone recently told me about a reverse miter which is a technique I am not familiar with, and will have to look into if I ever make another one of these. If anyone out there knows of an easier way to do this please share in the comments section!

Make 2 curtain ties in the same way you made the trim. Tie into bows and attach to the theater with safety pins.

Sew on 3 or 4 tabs (made just like the trim only not as long) to the base of the window which will create another casing for the 2nd tension rod to go through.

I found the tension rod at the base of the window was necessary because the bottom of the window will droop if it doesn’t have support. I discovered this after the whole theater was constructed so did this as the last step, but it would probably be easier to add the tabs right after sewing on the back trim but before the front trim so that the seam lines are not visible on the front.

Insert your tension rods into the casings, hang and put on a show! Sophie is having lots of fun putting on shows with her monster puppets in it!