DIY Babywearing Bag Tutorial

*I'm a bit of a wordy gal, scroll down a bit to just get right into the tutorial!

Babywearing isn't only about the carrier you wear your baby in - there are many accessories out there from suck pads (did you know babies like to suck on the straps of the carrier they are worn in?  suck pads are removable and washable to keep the carrier clean), to babywearing jackets (I don't know if you've ever worn a baby on your back, but you can't really put a regular jacket over top of the big lump on your back!), to babywearing bags (bags with long wide straps that you can wear across your body WHILE wearing a baby).

I don't use carriers with straps, so no suck pads needed for me.  I avoid the elements (cold and/or wet weather) most of the time, so nope, don't need a babywearing jacket at the moment.  BUT I've always been intrigued by babywearing bags.  Now that Elle is in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd with Finn I have 1.5 hours on Tuesdays where I can be out and about without the stroller (where the diaper bag normally resides) while wearing Thea.  Last week we went into the city.  I emptied my diaper bag of all but the necessities (a small coin purse with my ID, a couple diapers, and wipes).  That took care of the weight issue (diaper bags are HEAVY when you have all the other stuff in there), and my strap is long enough that I could wear Thea and still wear my bag across my body, but it's a much bigger bag than I needed, and the strap isn't very comfortable pressed up against Thea or I.  So I started looking into buy/making a babywearing bag.

I didn't want to spend $50+ on some of the GORGEOUS bags out there made with woven wrap material, but I wanted the same concept, and I had some fabric left over from my DIY Ikea Wrap (which I have yet to blog about).

So I asked around in a couple of groups and a friend directed me to a facebook group called "Woven DIY" where the lovely Tara had a tutorial for pretty much the exact babywearing bag I was looking for.  Long wide wrap strap, not too big, cute pattern (the little pleats in the front look great and are functional for keeping stuff from falling out of the bag without having to have a zipper or clasp or anything), and super easy for a beginner sewer.

With Tara's permission I've written out the tutorial because I really wanted to share this cute and super easy babywearing bag with all my friends!  Definitely check out the facebook group and if you have any questions I've found Tara to be prompt and extremely helpful!

Okay, let's get on with it!

*********************************

All of this is from Tara's tutorial in the facebook group with (mostly) my own pictures, unless I've specified that I did something different :)

What you need:

• 2 panels - 30 cm x 30 cm each
• one strap - 2.6m x .15m
• pocket - 17 cm x 15 cm
• sewing machine
• thread
• scissors/rotary cutter
• needles
• 1 small set of rings (I was impatient to start and just used cheap craft store rings, but actual slingrings would work better and you can get them in lots of colors.  If you're in New Zealand Woven carries them as well as other things you may need for DIY babywearing!)

Now, I'm terrible with visualizing the project even with a photo tutorial, so I'll tell you right now what *I* couldn't see before it was done.  The panels attach to the straps in a way so that the strap is also the sides and base of the bag.  Also the bag is unlined so I worried that it would all be fraying inside, but you will actually be doing a rolled hem on the inside, no fraying!  (I've posted a picture of the inside so you can see what I mean)

All the fabric you need

Cut a small taper at one end of the strap

Cut your 30cm x 30cm panels.

As you can see in the other picture, fold your panels in half and cut a small curve into the bottom corner.

Sew a double hem along the top of the panels - about 7mm wide, and line up the edge with the machine foot, with the needle set to about 4 so it nicely catches the edge.

One of my favorite things about Tara's babywearing bag is that she puts in some pleats and box stitches them in place. That way you don't need any zipper or closure to keep things from falling out of the bag. The pleats are about 2cm wide each.

Double hem the top and bottom of your pocket. Pin the pocket 35cm down from the straight edge of the shoulder strap, making it a bit slack at the top.

Sew in place. Trim the pocket so the hem matches that of the shoulder strap.

Pin the first side of the panels 28 cm down the shoulder strap.

This is the next part that was really difficult for me to visualize before hand.  You're going to start on the top of one panel as it's pinned, but then at the bottom just continue, rounding the bottom corner of the panel with the strap, then the base of the panel with the strap, around the other bottom corner, and then up to the other side of that first panel.  Then do the same with the other panel.

With the shoulder straps on the top, sew the panels onto the shoulder strap with a 2cm hem. Secure the top of the panel really well, sewing back and forwards several times. Ease around the corners carefully.

A finished corner. Sew both panels from the same end to ensure that they start and finish at the same place.
*These are Tara's pictures from her photo tutorial - The fabric shows the corners a bit better than mine, plus she does a much better job on the corners than me!!

Hem the end of the shoulder strap that will take the rings. Trim about 1cm over a 3cm length at the end.

Roll a double hem on the strap, just down from the hem.

Start sewing at the end of the taper.

Sew down to about 5cm from where the panel joins the shoulder strap. Do this on both sides of the shoulder strap.

Thread the rings onto the shoulder strap and pin down so the hem of the shoulder strap is about 3 cm down from the panel.

And now, the last part that was hard for me to see. As I said above, this is where you will be doing a rolled hem on the inside to stop the fraying.  Basically you are going from one side of the straps on the ring end, double rolling through the inside of one side of the bag, then continuing on hemming the strap, going around the corners and then double rolling through the rest of the bag and coming back to the rings on the other side - a circle... or maybe a rectangle?! hah

Stitch the end of the shoulder strap into the hem.

Rolled edge over the panel fabric. Pull on both sides of the fabric to keep them sitting flat.
I really should have touched up my nails before taking these pictures ;)

Sew over the panel hem.

Where you have the pocket hems, you are fine to trim down the shoulder strap hem a bit to make this easier to sew.

When you get to the end of the panels you just keep on sewing a basic rolled hem. Set the stitch width to 4 so it catches the edge nicely when the fabric is lined up against the foot.

Tara's photos again

1.How to do the ends tidily.

2.On the end with the obtuse angle just roll the adjacent side up.

3.Stitch into the corners and then turn around and stitch out of them again so you don't have to do a new seam.

4.Sew along the new edge.

5.For the acute corner cut off a small triangle.

6.Roll the corner over twice.

7.That's twice in this photo.

8.Roll the new edge over twice.

9.Sew into the corner.

Finished obtuse end (left) and acute end (right)

Sew the shoulder strap down in line with the panel.

Tara puts a pleat into the shoulder strap where it goes through the rings and sews tightly up against the rings using a zipper foot. This ensures that the rings stay tightly together and the fabric doesn't slip through them.
I was a bit lazy and just sewed it mainly gathered with a regular foot (as I don't have a zipper foot) so as close as I could with what I had.

This is the inside of the bag.  I didn't do the greatest job ever, you can see a couple fraying spots, but you get the idea.

Finished bag!

****************************

Don't forget to check out the "Woven DIY" group on facebook and if you're in New Zealand, get your rings from Woven!

BW Challenge - Days 1-7

Awhile ago on a babywearing group I'm on they posted a "30 carries in 30 days" challenge.

Woven wraps are very versatile, especially if you have wraps in different sizes. There are several different ways to carry on the front, the hip and the back.

I thought this would be a fun challenge, especially to try different back carries, as the few I had tried weren't working for me (which is exactly why there are so many different carrying options - moms tried one and found it wasn't comfortable for them, so would tweak it a bit and make a new carry to suit them better)

When I sold my long wrap and had to wait for my new rainbow one I fell quite behind in this challenge... but I thought maybe doing a post a week of the 7 carries will give me time to catch up! So...

Days 1-7

Day 1: Front Wrap Cross Carry

The main front carry, and the one that is recommended that everyone starts with. This is still the main way I carry Thea when she's on my front (she usually will pull her arms out at some point)

Day 2: Semi-Front Wrap Cross Carry

I had never tried this carry before, it was kind of cute - but I don't really like carries that only go over one shoulder, so this isn't a carry I would ever do.

Day 3: Front Cross Carry

I haven't used this carry much but I really should - I always forget about it.
It's nice because you can tie it on and then pop baby in and then tighten it up.

Day 4: Short Cross Carry

I didn't really love this one as the back felt all bunched up - but I've done it in the past with a sling ring in the back, and that was very nice and flat :)

Day 5: Kangaroo

I've heard this is great for newborns, but it's a tricky one to get right so I haven't tried it much,

Day 6: Front Torso

I can see someone trying this if they have bad shoulders and can't have anything pulling on them at all, but this carry just doesn't even work in my opinion, as soon as I started moving the back started slipping down and no longer supported Thea anyways, so I might as well just carry her with my arms! haha

Day 7: Simple Hip Carry

This is basically how a pouch carry would work, I didn't like it.
Can't get it snug enough, and there are many other better hip carries if you are wanting to do a hip carry.

I won the lottery

I won the lottery!

The babywearing lottery, that is.

So in the world of woven wraps, there is a huge range of prices.  The cheapest being around $80 (at least in Australia, I think you can get the Little Frog wraps that I have for cheaper in Canada and the states), and the most expensive being thousands of dollars.

The differences are mainly machine woven, mass produced wraps in the lower price range, and handwoven one of a kinds in the highest price range. (And custom slots where you design the wrap probably being the highest)

These handwoven one of a kinds are obviously very hard to come by, and their makers release them in different ways.

One way is "fastest fingers", where they let buyers know when they will be releasing the wraps and people around the world wake up at all hours of the night staring at the clock waiting for the release time, credit card in hand, praying they get all their info in before anyone else.  In this instance, Aussies tend to always lose out, as our internet is slower here.

The other way is a draw.  Every interested buyer puts their name in a hat basically, and if your name is picked, you get the chance to purchase the wrap.

Well, there's this one company from Red Deer Canada called Uppymama.  Every Wednesday on Facebook they have their weekly Wednesday draw.  Generally about 3-8 wraps are up for draw. Sometimes they are all the same wrap in different sizes, sometimes they are a bit different (mainly the same but a bit of a different color way, or else cotton versions and linen versions).  On average about 800 people enter the draw.

The cost is...well, a lot more than my Little Frog wraps. But more on that later. Conor agreed a few months ago to let me enter the draws, what are the chances, right?

Well on Thea's birthday, after a botched nap attempt, in the throes of sickness, I grumpily checked my email, and I had won the draw for an Uppymama wrap! 

I was sure it was some kind of spam - couldn't believe my eyes!

So back to the world of woven wraps.  Most wraps, if kept in good condition, hold their value for the most part.  I bought my first Little Frog wrap for $80 incl. shipping and I sold it for $70. There's a process of "breaking in" wraps, making them soft and more useable.  Think of what a new pair of jeans feels like compared to your comfiest jeans that you've been wearing for years.  Well some people actually prefer to buy used wraps because they are already broken in and they don't have to do the work.

Meet Chocolate Chip Sock Monkey
I *think* there are about 20 of these out there, and this is the last of the ones Uppymama had in stock.

Then you have handwovens, some of which you can sell for more (much MUCH more) than you bought them for.  And Uppymama's are one of those wraps.  I haven't been watching the market for long, but I have yet to see a used Uppymama wrap sell for less than $800, which is almost double what they cost from the draw.  THIS is why Conor let me enter the draws.  I won't be able to keep this thing forever, but winning one in the draw is the ONLY way I would have a chance of owning one, even for a little bit.

It was just about lunch time when it arrived, but I had to give it a quick wrap - sooo soft and comfy!

Even Elle let me give her some "Uppy" ;) hehe

So one day I will sell this Uppymama.  I don't know if I could stomach selling it for the actual Market Value, we will see.  My original thought was that I would sell it for what I paid plus enough to get myself a new wrap, one that is a bit more expensive than my Little Frog ones... but now that I've owned a handwoven, I might try to get another (less expensive) handwoven out of the deal.

Went for a walk today with the kids, and Thea was nice and happy on my back, and honestly, it was more comfortable than any backpack I've ever worn, and she's 22 lbs!

I've heard people say that "Uppymama" wraps, wrap themselves.  I've been having difficulty getting Thea up on my back and actually being comfortable with her back there, and let me tell you, I hardly noticed her back there in this Uppymama... so I'm sold!

Goodbye to my first wrap

In the world of woven wraps, there are people who just "buy.all.the.wraps"!!  And then there are the people who can't afford that, so they either get new ones as gifts for birthdays, etc... or else they sell one to buy another.

Right now I'm in the "one in, one out" camp.  Another local babywearer had a wrap that was really stiff and she wanted to pass it around to different people to use it for a couple weeks at a time to help "break it in".  After using that one a bit I started wanting something different than mine.

My first woven wrap - and the first time wrapping Thea in it.

I finally decided that I would sell my first wrap (it's a size 6 and it's actually too long for me, so it was either cut that one down to a size 5, or buy a new size 5) and buy a rainbow wrap and in the same brand as my other two because those are the cheapest ones, so then I wouldn't lose any money in selling mine to buy another one.

As it turned out though, the rainbow one would have cost about $20 more than what I thought I could sell mine at, but just as I had decided which wrap I wanted to buy, the company that sells them were celebrating their 2nd birthday and would be having giveaways and sales for a week. My plan was to list my wrap and once it sold I would buy the wrap I wanted from a local vendor and tell Conor that the $20 difference could be my mothers day gift! haha.  BUT if it went on sale from the original company that makes them then I would just buy the wrap and cross my fingers that mine would sell quickly.

The bottom wrap, Sandy Agat, is the one I wanted.

So I washed my wrap and put the listing up on the babywearing swap group on facebook, and just hoped that it would sell, and that they would put the rainbow wrap I wanted on sale- and two days later it did go on sale!

 So I bought it right away, and an hour later someone asked to buy my wrap.  It was pretty much perfect timing, and a few hours later when I went back to the website they had completely sold out of the rainbow wraps in every size.  In the end I had to pay $1 something more, but this wrap is a little more expensive than mine was to start off with because it's a bit thicker.

Once I saw the money for my wrap go into my account, I went and brought it to the post office.  I'm a little bit sad that my first wrap is now gone, but I'm excited about the rainbow one coming!

Sewing: mini-mei tai

I decided to make a dolly Mei Tai (baby carrier) for Elle and Finn before making my own.  I thought it would be good to get a bit more practice, and there were a few spots in the tutorial where I just could NOT visualize in my head how it was going to work out.... I needed to be able to do it to actually see it, and I didn't want mine to be the guinea pig!

In most ways I did it exactly like this tutorial... except I didn't really measure it, so it's not to scale, the straps are actually too short to tie it the way you would for an adult Mei Tai.  Also I just made thin straps - the tutorial has wide straps that can cup the wearers shoulder for added comfort, but not needed for the weight of a dolly.

I was just using scraps from the table cloth I bought to make my Mei Tai.  I cut out all my pieces and then just randomly cut some other pieces for the dolly one, without measuring.

In the end, the waist straps are each about 12 inches from the body panel (just about 3 inches inside the body panel), the shoulder straps are are about 26-28 (good measuring, right! haha) from the body (again there's another 3 inside the body panel), and the body panel is a rectangle of 11 inches wide and 12.5 inches tall.  I cut the top corners where the shoulder straps come out for atheistic purposes.

This is all the pieces (the "body" is three identical pieces).
When I do my real one the inner layer will be "duck cloth" to anchor my straps to.

When I do mine I will do it like in the tutorial, with tabs at the strap openings, and a bit of contoured sides and a head rest.

I had cut it all the other night when Conor was going to take the kids to the park and I was going to get sewing then, but they didn't go to the park, so no sewing was had that night.  So last night (as usual I wrote this a couple weeks ago and never made the finishing touches and pressed "publish"... so I most definitely did NOT do this last night!) after the kids were in bed, I got sewing!  Now, I'm learning that I am NOT a perfectionist when it comes to sewing.  I really just blew through this project, with lots of little mistakes and hardly a straight line to be seen! haha.  But a couple of the little mistakes I made (all just cosmetic mistakes, nothing that would make it unsafe to carry a baby in it) I have learned from and hopefully they don't happen with the real deal!

This is the inner layer with the straps attatched... a good practice for my "x-boxes"

So first you attach the straps to the inner layer.  This is basically the most important part, the straps have to be secure in order to safely wear a baby in the carrier - x-boxes are the securing factor.

Then you put the outside and inside layer on and sew, but you don't sew over the strap openings, because you have to then turn it inside out, so that the x-boxes are hidden inside.  THIS is where I couldn't figure out how it would actually work, how you could turn it inside out and get the straps out ... anyways, it works!

Lastly you top stitch all around, tucking in the openings from the straps

The finished product!

This is where my cosmetic mistake comes into play, mainly just on this one strap opening.  Because I didn't have them all cut to the same size, and I had my x-boxes too close to the edge, I couldn't tuck under the opening to sew it pretty.  I'll do better with the real deal.

Not "sew" pretty... but the kids don't notice!

Ta-da

The next morning the kids were so excited to try it on!

Elle with her big teddy because I couldn't find her dolly

Finn wanted to go next!  On the babywearing groups I'm on the ladies are either asking for advice on how to get their husbands to babywear, or else they're showing off their babywearing husbands with pictures.
So the caption "real men wear their babies!" was just a bit of a cute joke :)

So there's my first dolly mei tai.  Other than cutting this all out, I did all of the sewing on the same night... about 1.5 hours.  Not bad!  Like I said I'm not much of a perfectionist and just blew through this, but it's cute - would love to make these (a bit better!) for gifts!

Hopefully in the next week I'll finish mine!

Oh, and I'm not way more excited about this than the kids.  Finn hasn't worn it again, and Elle's only worn it once since that day.

Sewing: Ring Sling

Disclaimer: This is NOT a tutorial.  Please do not use my directions to make your own ring sling - I am VERY much a newbie sewer... find someone who actually knows what they're doing!

So as I said in my earlier post about finally learning how to sew, I've really always wanted to but for many reasons just haven't done it.  But then I got interested obsessed with babywearing. While it's not in our budget to spend more on more wraps etc, I really did want to try a ring sling.  And in order to learn to sew, you need to have things to actually sew in the first place!

(image from Google images)
If I did buy a ring sling, I love this Girasol one!

Thus my first sewing project became a ring sling!  I'm part of a "DIY babywearing" group on facebook, so got some tips on fabric etc (although ended up having to consult some Aussie babywearing friends because certain fabrics here go by different names in the states, and the DIY group is mainly North Americans.)

You really want to be careful what fabric you choose when making babywearing items because the wrong kind of fabric can be disastrous if it suddenly can't take the weight of the baby.  One type of fabric might work perfectly fine as a wrap, but would NOT work as a ring sling because the seams that secure the rings might not be able to bear the weight of the baby.

So after talking to some local babywearers, I decided to go with a "drill" fabric. I really really wanted a chevron print, and usually with ring slings you want a fabric that has the print on both sides since you see the "wrong" side in the tail (the fabric that comes down from the rings)...but as the fabric was on sale, I decided I would just try it anyways.

The next important thing for a ring sling is the rings!  You need rings that are weight bearing tested (NO craft store rings) - slingrings are pretty much the go to, some people might try rings from hardware stores, but I just decided to go with the "industry standard".  Plus they come in lots of pretty colors!

I had actually already bought the rings previously to use with a current wrap as a no-sew ring sling, but I just found the wrap too long for this purpose.

So I googled how to make a ring sling and came across many many many websites and blogs. Someone on the DIY group linked this this page, so I got a lot of my info from there.  I decided how wide and long I wanted the ring sling, hemmed the two long sides and the tail end, and then used the video for a "gathered shoulder" on that site which shows how to pin it so that you can easily sew the rings on.

Conor had picked up this ironing board when we first moved here... but I don't iron!
I DID finally buy the iron a few days before the sewing machine :)

The point of this post is not to SHOW you how I did it, because again, trust a tutorial by someone else... but here's my ring sling!!

I actually made a "mistake" right off the bat.  I had bought an off-white thread to use on the wrap, but at the same time bought a black thread just to use for practicing, assuming I would someday need black thread for something else.  Well I completely forgot to change the thread in the machine until I had hemmed the one short tail end.  I showed Conor and said I would just change the thread then, but he said it would probably look weirder to have the one end hemmed with black than have the whole thing with black thread.  I'm very glad I listened to him, and I'm actually very happy with the black.  I can "see" my handiwork (or mistakes!) easier!

My model was sleeping so I pulled out good old "hospital bear"

As you can see in the picture, you can see the "wrong" side of the fabric hanging out, but I actually don't think it looks bad, and if I want I can wrap it around the rings so that there's no fabric hanging down at all.

Thea seemed to like it the next day!  I just popped her in for a picture.

If anyone wants to know about the length.  I cut it to be 30" wide, and the length before sewing on the rings was 2 m (I think it's about 8 or 9 inches shorter than that now).  Most people actually buy more, and I meant to, but then totally forgot about the length I would lose with the rings, but I'm happy with the length!  I don't really like a lot of excess wrap hanging down.  If I had bought it longer I likely would have chopped it to the length it is now, or else folded up the end so use as a "pocket" at the end.

So another reason I didn't want to spend a lot on a ring sling is because, so far, Thea doesn't actually like to be worn on my hip, she squirms and screeches... it's not fun.

But you CAN wear the baby a bit closer to your chest with ring slings, so I tried it out the other day.  I had a doctors appointment right at lunch time, and the kids were really well behaved so we went to McDonalds next door for lunch.  After we ate and the kids played in the playplace, I popped Thea in the sling and started chatting to another mom there.  Then I noticed her head was flopping around.  She fell asleep!  THAT is a sign of a good baby carrier - so we'll call this project a total win!