When my husband and I found out we were having a baby about a year ago, I couldn’t wait to set right to work designing the nursery.  Unfortunately, we were moving 3 months AFTER the baby was to be born, so even I had to acknowledge that setting up a nursery in our tiny apartment wasn’t quite worth it.

Sad.

Since I couldn’t really set to work on my first baby’s nursery, I decided to pour all my nesting energy into a bunch of items we’d need right away (i.e., burp cloths, changing pad, etc).  I made all these items out of the “someday soon” nursery fabric so that everything would match!

After HOURS (yes…hours and hours and hours) of pouring over fabrics to pick just the right ones…I decided on Robert Kauffman’s new Urban Zoologie Owls in Ivory as my main fabric and accented it with a navy polka dot, a turquoise polka dot, and a green argyle!

My first project was to make burp cloths…lots and lots of burp cloths.  I accidentally bought flat fold diapers first, only to discover that they were way too thin for burp cloths and I instead needed the pre-fold kind (I ended up “quilting” 3 of the flat fold diapers together and binding with bias tape to make the final set…but boy, were those a TON of work for burp cloths!).  I found the pre-folds super cheep at Walmart and set to work with my fabrics, ribbon, and bias tape!  I made 18 (6 of each kind), which I thought was too many.  Ha!  I learned quickly you can NEVER have too many burp cloths with a newborn!

Next, I used my theme owl fabric to make two patterns I bought off of the YCMT website (FYI – I have since found tons of free tutorials for these same products and wish I hadn’t spent my money!)  I made a nursing cover and a carseat cover.  Turns out my baby HATES to be covered while nursing and would rather expose his Mama to innocent bystanders (!), but the carseat cover became indispensable in wind and rain!

When looking for toys to add to our baby registry, I came across these adorable soft blocks.  Instead of adding them to our wish list, I decided I would make my own set out of our theme fabrics and filled with all sorts of fun noise makers (bells, rice, beans, and pennies!)

After I had all these blocks, I desperately needed something to keep them all in!  I found this awesome laundry bag tutorial here and made this super cute bag to lug around toys, laundry, or other baby things!

When I picked out this owl fabric, I honestly/truly had no idea that owls were so “in.”  As I poked around online for ideas, I found so many cute and clever owl things.  In my online meanderings, I stumbled upon this owl stuffie tutorial. As cute as it was, I wasn’t sure how I could use it.  One day when I was trying to figure out a cute replacement for the tacky mobile that came with our temporary pack’n’play, it occurred to me that the owls would make an adorable mobile!

And then…these happy fellas were born!

They were a huge hit with He-Man…once he was old enough to see them! 😉

The last element to He-Man’s temporary nursery was something my mother made for him.  I’ve mentioned before what an amazing crafter/quilter my mother is.  Before the little guy was born, she surprised me with this quilt:

I absolutely fell in love with it, and knew it was the perfect accent for the wall above the little guy’s temporary home (our bedroom).  Here is He-Man’s San Diego home (at the foot our our bed!)

We we arrived in our new home in Quantico this past summer, I first set to work sewing for and setting up He-Man’s nursery, complete with bedding, curtains, changing pad covers, basket liners, a new mobile, and artwork.  Stay tuned for Part 2.

See You Soon!
Megan