Busy Mama Bird: Diaper Motorcycle

Back in January we celebrated the coming arrival of my nephew Baby M, my bonus-sister's son. Her cousin hosted a lovely shower at my dad and bonus-mom's house. Baby M's nursery theme is Winnie the Pooh, so it made decorating for the shower pretty easy.

Before we get to a few of those photos I thought I'd share the diaper cycle I made for the shower. It was a big hit... especially with my family since my dad and bonus-mom ride Harleys.

I'm sure you can guess where I got the idea...Pinterest, of course. I came across two that I really liked. While they looked about the same, I noticed they had a couple small differences in assembly. I kind of merged the two together to come up with my final masterpiece ;-)

The folks who first created these, and posted the instructions for all to see, deserve the credit for these little creations, and they certainly do a better job of showing you how to do it. So, head to those blogs for detailed instructions. The sites are www.sweetaprils.com and www.baby-shower.com but you can find the specific instructions here and here.

Here's what you need if you're going to make your own:

About 40 Size 1 diapers (as a mom, I prefer Pampers Swaddlers)
Two cloth bibs (I used burp cloths)
One washcloth
Two (or three, depending which design you prefer) receiving blankets in like colors (I did three)
A pair of baby mittens or socks (I used mittens)
One bottle
One (or two, again depending on which you do) of the baby chain link toys
Ribbon to wrap around the "tires"
Stuffed animal of your choice

Optional items I used to add a little fun:

Toy keys
Birth announcement pillow for seat

Make sure to coordinate your blankets, bibs, and wash cloths to keep things looking clean. I used Winnie the Pooh receiving blankets to go along with my theme. The blankets and the pillow had some green, so that's what I chose to use for the fabric pieces. On www.sweetaprils.com you can see several examples of coordinating colors and themes.

I used the "tires" from one because I liked the look of them better. Putting them together in the round pans like this just made them look a little neater I think.

Since I found the Winnie the Pooh birth announcement pillow and thought it would make the perfect seat I decided to use the other's instruction for connecting them with the blankets because it left a little more room between the tires. Both had the same concept for the handlebars, headlight, and "fenders". Oh, and one used elastic instead of ribbon to wrap the tires. While I think that was pretty practical and kept a better hold of the diapers, I like the look of the ribbon better. I ended up using a wide solid ribbon and then layering a thinner Winnie the Pooh printed ribbon over it.

Here's the final product!