Busy Bar

For a while now I have thought it would be nice to have one of those play gyms they sell for babies. Vivi can reach up for things now with her hands and feet and is finally interested in toys. However, we have so much baby junk already I really didn't want to buy another giant baby item that takes up lots of space. Not to mention they run from $40-$80 for a padded blanket and a couple toys to hang off two cross bars. She won't have much use for it in a couple months once she can sit up so I hated to make the investment. Heck, we have carpet so I didn't really need the padded mat. I already had plenty of toys. All I really needed was a bar. I thought a lot about it and thought maybe I could make something out of PVC pipe. I turned to the trusty internet and sure enough I found 2 people who had made a busy bar out of PVC. It was super easy.

You need:
one piece of PVC pipe. We used 3/4" and it comes in 8 foot pieces.
2 corner pieces of pipe
2 T shaped pieces of pipe
4 pipe caps

We cut the long pipe into the following pieces:
One 24-30" bar
Two 16" leg pieces
Four 9" feet pieces
Greg cut them out in about 5 minutes with a saw but you can use a serrated knife too. Then you just put the corner pieces on the end of the main bar. Put the leg pieces into the corner pieces. Then put the T pieces at the bottom of the legs and add the feet pieces. You should also add caps to the feet since the edges will be very rough without them. Greg forgot to buy ours so we have to get some later. Since PVC isn't something you want your baby to chew on I decided to cover our bar with fabric. I just sewed a tube of fabric and slid it over the bar before adding the feet pieces. It even matches our decor. Then I took the toys I wanted to hang and added plastic C's that I already had to make chains to hang the toys at the proper levels so she could reach them. The C pieces came in a huge package that I picked up a while ago from the drug store. Vivi loves the busy bar. The total cost was $11 and it can be disassembled and stored under a couch or bed. It was so cheap and easy to make that I won't feel bad if she only uses it for a few weeks.