Category Archives: Baby Wearing

The Woven Wrap

I am soooo thankful Mandy left this comment on my post about Slingin’ Babies.

Many of the DIY mamas on TBW have made wraps out of osnaburg material for a woven wrap supportive enough for a bit heavier baby.

The very next day I was out and about with Micah in the knit wrap when I realized it has been a while since I’d had him in there. He’s now about 20 lbs and he kept slipping further and further down until he was about hip level!  I immediately thought of Mandy’s comment and trucked myself over to WalMart (the one on our side of town still carries fabric).

I ended up buying homespun for $2 a yard and cutting it down the middle to make a wrap for me and a wrap for my friend Ashley.

The picture isn’t the best because I looked like an ogre that day and wanted my face kept out of pic and Micah was a man on the move. But, you get the idea…

By the way, I’ve since test drove this little number several times and I am thrilled with it! I didn’t bother to hem the raw edge in case you are wondering. And I’ve updated the original post (with a much better picture!) as well.

If you have any posts on slingin’ babies, let me know and I’ll add a section on the original post with a link to your post so others can see how you sling your babies! (I’ve already added Mama K’s awesome baby carrier reviews post, so go check it out!)

Slingin’ Babies

I LOVE slingin’ babies! No, I don’t mean throwing them around! I mean “wearing” them by carrying them around in a sling. Many of the fabrics carriers available on the market can be made by you at home quickly and rather painlessly (even for a sewing novice!). I thought I’d share some of my experiences with making and wearing these different types of carriers.

The first sling I ever made was a ring sling from the Maya Wrap instructions. I just grabbed some old fabric I had laying around and bought cheap rings from Hobby Lobby. I am VERY lucky the thing didn’t break! I learned later that you shouldn’t use these rings and you have to be careful about what fabric you use as well. When I learned about this, I bought “real” rings from the SlingsRings website. Wow, the difference! I also started using heavyweight fabric. I tweaked the pattern that MayaWrap gives because I felt it needed more fabric and I added a pocket near the end of the tail to hold a diaper and wipes container, or a wallet and keys, or even toys for baby.

Micah in a ring sling made from light blue toile

The next type of carrier I made was a Mei Tai (Asian-style) carrier. Many of you are familiar with my “Fancy Mei Tai“, but prior to that I had a not-so-fancy one. I used a pattern from Sleeping Baby. (She had adapted the usual Mei Tai pattern to include larger straps–which I highly recommend.) I used a nice heavyweight cotton and it turned out wonderfully. I have since chosen to decrease the width of the pouch and taper it at the legs, as well as making the width of the straps just a bit less. I prefer the pattern with the rounded top as well. It gives a bit of support for smaller babies and can be folded down for older babies.

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Keian “helping” Mama cook.

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Emily enjoying a beautiful October day.

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Micah in the “fancy” mei tai.

I didn’t really like using either of these carriers with a newborn, so I asked around and was told a pouch was the best for little bitty ones. So, a pouch I did make! Once again, I used the instructions from Sleeping Baby with a heavyweight cotton. (that was also the first and only time I’ve made a French seam!)

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Newborn Keian in a pouch

However, I never felt very comfortable with this carrier and it hasn’t been used since the above picture was taken (that is baby #4 in there). It might be because my newborns are a good 10 pounds.

Finally, I arrived upon the best (in my ever-so-humble opinion) carrier for wee little ones…a wrap!

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Emily at 4 months

A wrap is basically a long piece of fabric, wrapped around your body and baby tucked snuggly inside. For newborns, their heads stay within the fabric and right up against mama. For bigger babies, they can face in or out and if they fall asleep, you can tuck their heads into the fabric the way you did when they were newborn.

This has got to be the EASIEST carrier to make. You don’t even need to know how to sew! My friend, Tina, and I “made” the carriers shown below in a few minutes. We had one for her, one for me and one for me to share with a friend! Three wraps in a matter of minutes!

Newborn Micah in my brand new wrap!

 

 

Micah in a woven wrap.


If you’d like to try making one of these wraps for yourself, here are the instructions…

Easy Wrap Instructions
Here’s what you need:
5-7 yds of stretch knit fabric (think t-shirt material)
or
5-7 yds of woven fabric (basically woven is any material that is woven together so the threads look the same on both sides instead of a cotton that is printed on one side)
1 pair of scissors
tape measure

1. I’ve found it to be easiest to lay your fabric out on the floor if you can find an area large enough to work in (you don’t have to be able to lay out the entire 5-7 yds either. Cutting on 2-3 yds at a time works fine) The reason I don’t use a table is because knit stretches and that can make cutting rather interesting when you have that much length to work with. It seems to always end up hanging off the table and stretching out too much. You want your fabric to lay smooth as you cut. If you are using the woven, a table should work fine.

2. Knit is typically 60″ wide, woven 45″. Each wrap is 20″ wide, so you will get 3 wraps from one length of knit and 2 out of the woven! (Honestly, I just cut the woven down the center) One to keep and one or two to give away! So, the next thing you do is cut the fabric at 20″ wide up the entire length of fabric. When Tina and I made ours, we used her concrete basement floor and one of us scooted along with the tape measure while the other one scooted along cutting at the 20″ mark. We had a dozen children standing over us watching us creep along–what a sight!

3. Do that one more time for the knit and you now have 3 wraps! Knit doesn’t unravel like other fabrics, so there is no need to sew a hem. I’ve managed to find knit on clearance for as little as $1/yd! Even if it does cost you more than that, you’re still saving a mint over the name brand wrap price! I found woven for $2/yd and as yet, I’ve not bothered to hem the other side.

4. Now learn how to carry baby!
(ps-the reason I say 5-7 yds is because despite what many sites say, not everyone can get by with 5 yards and do ALL the carries. Consider your body size when purchasing yardage.)

Here is my absolute favorite site for teaching carries for all of the baby carriers shown here:
The Baby Wearer

You will find videos and step-by-step instructions on these sites. If you are uncomfortable experimenting with your baby in the carrier, use a baby doll until you are comfortable. I would highly encourage you to take your new carrier, stand in front of your computer with the videos on these sites and try the carries right along with them, rewinding as needed. I also encourage you to have a friend or your husband or older son or daughter nearby to be an extra hand or two when you are first learning. It can be tricky until you get the hang of it…especially the back carries!

And in case you haven’t figured out just how passionate I am about slingin’ babies, read my post on slinging Emily…it will give you some insight into just how much wearin’ my babies means to me. May you be as blessed!

Links to more about Slingin’ Babies!
(I’m starting a section in this post linking to what others are saying about slingin’ babies. If you have a post from your blog or other great slingin’ link, let me know and I’ll add it here! To start us off is…)
Mama K with her fantastic Baby Carrier Review.
Baby Wearing for Beginners
Wrap-a-Baby
Nugglemama’s Babywearing Safety post
Adventures in Babywearing
Babywearing International

A Little Bit of Fancy

FANCY

ADJECTIVE

ornamental; decorative; not plain:
Her mei tai is fancy.

About a year ago, a gorgeous piece of embroidered blue silk caught my eye on the clearance shelf at a local retailer. On a whim, I bought 1 yard of it. This was all I could justify spending since even on clearance, it wasn’t cheap by my standards.

I knew from the moment I laid eyes on it, it would someday be the front panel of a mei tai. Yet, it would take a very special complimentary fabric to make this work. I owned no such fabric.

So, for a year I have been scouring clearance bins and shelves for a fabric that had just the right look, just the right weight, and just the right amount of yardage. I finally found it!

Gold damask and blue embroidered silk makes for one very FANCY mei tai!

Oh, and one last picture…
Micah’s latest shoes…
Micah-moccs!

Motrin Ad on Babywearing ~ My Story

Babywearin’ mamas everywhere are outraged by this ad, and rightly so. Poor marketing, Motrin. Bad, all-around idea ad agency. Might wanna get this off the networks before too many more baby-packin’ mamas see this!

I could fire off all the benefits of babywearing and all the statistics and all the other militant-mama artillery in my arsenal, but what speaks louder than all of that is my story.

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I became a die-hard babywearer with the birth of my 3rd child in 2004. I had finally gotten the hang of it and LOVED it. So, naturally, when my 5th child, Emily, came along in 2007, she spent a goodly amount of time in some sort of homemade-by-me baby carrier. The store, the park, hiking, you name it…I wore her.

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And at 7 months and 6 days, I lost her.

What I gave her ~ the comfort of mama’s closeness ~ and what she gave me in return ~ priceless memories ~ are unmatched. She would bury her fuzzy little head against my chest and fall fast asleep. I would snuggle my check against the top of her head and breathe in her sweet baby smell.

And these memories are not just mine. My husband speaks so fondly of the days he would come home from work and catch a glimpse of me in the window working about the kitchen with Emily strapped to my back in a mai tai. He would come in and kiss her and kiss me and watch us as we continued about our work ~ mama and baby melded together in a domestic dance.

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One of the hardest things to put away after her death was my stash of baby carriers. I wanted so badly to hold this child to my heart once again. I searched the carriers for her hair, her smell, remnants of all my memories.

This is what babywearing is. It is a mother’s love enveloping her child. It is not a fashion statement, it is not a martyr’s curse, it is not a pain in the neck, or back, or hip…it is me…it is Emily…sharing moments that would someday be memories…precious, precious memories.

An Outing with the Children

The weather has been unseasonably warm here as of late and since I was feeling a bit like super-mom, I decided to take all the children on a walk to the post office and the library (about a half mile round trip).

I put Keian in one of my homemade ring-slings (the blue and white toile that screamed “MAKE ME INTO A SLING” from the fabric aisles of WalMart–ironically enough, it screamed the same thing to a nice lady I met at a homeschool conference last year when we both realized we had the exact same homemade sling!) I put Lia in the baby jogger w/ my 5 yo pushing and my oldest child walked alongside me waiting his turn to push the jogger on the return trip.

Now, keep in mind that baby was 10 lbs at birth. He’s well over 13 lbs now and 13 pounds gets heavy after a while no matter how you carry it.

The toddler was being exceptionally well-mannered considering her older sister was pushing her fast, then slow, then into the side of a building.

My dear sweet 5 year old has always had a habit of looking everywhere except where she is going. She is also my lolly-gagger–the child who takes 45 minutes to get dressed and make her bed in the morning and 2 hours to clean her room because she redecorates in the process. So, with every other step I was either saying, “Megan, watch where you’re going,” or “Megan catch up with the rest of us.”

My rather talkative 7 year old son was oblivious to it all and chattered away about how he was able to distinguish between tricycle tracks and bicycle tracks. I was forced to nod my head and interject little oohs and aahs and pretend like this was the most fascinating and informative conversation I had ever had.

Meanwhile, everyone we passed gawked at us. Maybe it was because they couldn’t believe anyone would venture out alone w/ 4 kids, maybe it was because I looked like a windblown crazy lady, or maybe it was because it was during school hours and we were walking away from the school.

We crossed the railroad tracks and went to the post office with no major mishaps. However, on the way back we saw that the train (that goes through town no less than 10 times a day) was blocking the only way to get to the other side of town where the library and our home lay. We were trapped on the wrong side of the tracks, so to speak.

We waited patiently and the train began to move, make that CREEP, down the track. It was just about to open up the way for us when it screeched to a halt and after much banging, headed the opposite direction. Just as we began to believe we would be free to cross, it stopped again.

By this point my 13 pound newborn felt like he’d gained 15 pounds and I sat down on a nearby parkbench. The toddler decided she was tired of being confined to the stroller and climbed out and had to be chased around by my eldest child. As all of this was going on, my 5 year old is picking flowers from one of the city planters and comparing them to the flowers on her coat.

Finally, the train heads on down the tracks and appears to be freeing the intersection when suddednly and without warning it stops short of completely opening up the way. I debate with myself about the safety of crossing the tracks with the cross arms still down and about the safety of remaining that close to a train with 4 small children and finally decided to cross to the other side and head to the library.

Once at the library, Keian began to cry rather loudly and I told the children to hurry up and get their books so we could get out of there.

Finally, we made it home and I laid the baby down (he went back to sleep once we started moving again) and I crashed. The older two children promptly sat down and read ALL their library books.

Do I dare try this again tomorrow???