Doctor Who's Tardis Child's Bunk Bed Removable Curtains

Over the years I've made a number of removable curtains for my grandchildrens' bunk beds including a train and Elsa's palace (from the film Frozen). My granddaughter lives in Germany, but loves Doctor Who! I made the outfit and then the Tardis!

The curtains are attached with velcro all around the bunk bed so they can be easily removed and they simulate both the outside and inside based on my take of the 13th Doctor's Tardis with the interior based on hexagons with yellow columns.

Step 1: What I Used to Make the Tardis

The fabric was 6 metres of blue polycotton sheeting fabric 240 cm wide and matching sewing cotton.

To decorate the inside 2 metres of yellow satin, 1/5 metre each of royal blue and light blue satin and matching sewing cotton.Also a compass and scrap paper to make small hexagons and template card hexagons.

To make the panels in the door 4 metres blue tape and black bias binding and matching sewing cotton

The window panels on the door were made of white organza.

The keyhole was made with a punch kit and needed a hammer

For the door handle silver tape.

The top panels and sign on the front required blue tape, black bias binding, organza and text printed on paper.

To attach to the bed sticky backed velcro for the bed side and sewable velcro for the top of each curtain.

and all the usual sewing requirements, sewing machine, sewing shears, snipping scissors, pins, iiron, 2 metre measuring stick and 1 metre stainless steel rule.

Step 2: Tardis Outside Preparation, Panels and Side Construction

The curtains are double sided, so I cut out 2 pieces for each section. For my bunk beds the measurements were:

2 doors 46 x 118cms so you need to cut 4 pieces with 2.5cm seam allowance.

1 side piece 98 x 118cms so you need 2 of these with 2.5 cm seam allowance.

1 lower side piece for the front of the bed from the ladder to the doors 68 x 87cms so you will need 2 of these with 2.5cm seam allowance.

1 lower side piece for the back of the bed for its entire length (Although this won't be seen from the back it allows the interior to be decorated.) You will need 2 pieces with 2.5cm seam allowance.

For each piece I used a metal metre rule to mark with a pencil where the seams would be on all the pieces so I was aware of the working area I had available and then tacked down the seam allowance for each separate piece and pressed the side piece which would be the side of the tar dis box in half lengthways to help when positioning the panels..

The next step was to make the panels, 4 on each door and 8 on the side panel.I also made 6 more for the inside of the door panels.)

I made the panels by using squared paper templates cut into 18 x 18cm squares, one for each of the panels. I then sewed the blue tape all around the sides of the paper. I next sewed on the 2.5cm bias binding folded in half onto the inner edge of the tape, carefully folding the corners to look like mitred corners.

In total I made 20 of these and then....

I took 17 of them and carefully tore the paper out leaving just the tape and bias square ready to sew onto the curtain.

To make the 4 windows, I sewed strips of the blue tape to the back of the paper template to make the 2 vertical and horizontal section dividers and then carefully tore out the paper template.

Having constructed all the necessary components of the side, I arranged the panels on the side panel, pinned in place and sewed them onto the fabric.

Step 3: Making the Sign on the Left Door and the Top Panels and Assembling the Door Pieces

First I needed to carefully tear out the paper from one of the remaining panels. Next I sewed the organza onto the printed paper sign (which I have included as a downloadable file) and then finally I sewed this into the panel.

Having created all the panels, I positioned the window notice and other 2 panels on the left hand door, pinned and sewed in place and then positioned, pinned and sewed the remaining window and a further 3 panels on the right hand door.

I also positioned, pinned and sewed the 3 bottom panels on each of the inside pieces of the doors.

To make the 2 signs at the top of the Tardis sides, I first printed out the Police box sign (which I have included below) and carefully stuck them together. (Beware this needs a lot of black ink or toner!) I made a paper template and sewed the organza to it and then finally sewed the bias binding around the edges.

Step 4: Making the Inside Panels

First I needed to make templates for the hexagons. I sewed large hexagons directly to the fabric and then created small hexagons from the blue satins to be sewn inside each of the sewn hexagons.

I made the large hexagon template by using a compass opened to 10cms to draw a circle on card and then used it to mark points around the circumference and then joined them up to make the hexagon. I then placed the cut out template on the inside sections of the cut out pieces to mark out the lines of the tessellated hexagons using a soft pencil.I then machine sewed along all the lines using white sewing cotton.

To make the small hexagons I used the same method with a compass set at 3cms to make paper templates, one for the centre of each large hexagon.I then cut out the satin for each of the templates with a 1cm extra allowance and tacked the satin onto the paper template, making sure that the tacking stitches secured the satin to the paper away from the edges of the hexagon.

The next stage was to position the small hexagons before pinning them onto the inside sections. I opted for putting the darker blue hexagons around one lighter one. I then sewed them on.. Although the pictures show I used a zigzag stitch I finally decided to use a straight sewing stitch and then pulled out the tacking stitches.

Using the yellow satin I cut it into 3 strips along the length and putting each piece with right sides together along the long side sewed each to make a long tube with a seam at one end so it could be turned inside out to make the columns which I placed as shown in the pictures and hand sewed them into place.

Step 5: Assembling the Curtains

Before assembling the curtains, I used some silver tape to make the handles on each side of the right door.

The next stage involved sewing the outside panels to their relative inside pieces.As each piece was tacked and pressed I simply sewed them together on the outside at every side. I also used black sewing cotton to make the inside panels on the doors so I could use a hole punch kit to put in the keyhole in the right door once sewn together with the inside door.

The final stages for all but the doors and side panel of the tardis was to attach velcro to the top of the curtains.

Then it was time to make a backing for the tardis signs using the left over blue poly cotton. I cut out the fabric to the size of the signs and tacked and pressed to size. I then attached 2 pieces of 2.5cm wide velcro on this vertically which gave it stability so when attached to the bed it would sit above the attached point and finally sewed it to the doors and side panel.

The final stage was to attach the top panels to the doors and side panels.