It's Not Spaghetti

This evening I’ve been luxuriating in the gorgeously soft no-cotton Natibaby Grey Pancy.  This beautiful wrap is made from linen and super soft bamboo viscose, a combination which I’ve always loved (though I must admit it’s a bit pesky to sew) and is just a dream to wear.  A Natibaby bamboo/linen blend wrap is also my son’s favourite snuggly sofa blanket!

Anyway, half of this particular gorgeous wrap has now been turned into a lovely pleated ring sling, wonderful for snuggly hugs (especially now it’s starting to get cooler) and a perfect classic sling for any special occasion   Did I say that I love Natibaby bamboo blend wraps? ;D

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Today I chopped a loooong Natural Mama’s Exclusive Oscha woven wrap and made 2 ring slings out of it. The mum who sent the wrap to me loved it so much that she wanted to share it with a friend! It was also lovely to make two very different ring slings from the same wrap (and both were different to the ring sling and play slings that I’d previously made from my own NMs Oscha wrap).

First up is a standard length ring sling with a gathered shoulder and large silver rings:

And it’s sister is an extra long ring sling (so will  be suitable for more secure + comfy back carries) with a pleated shoulder and large bronze rings. This sling was from the end without the original Oscha care label so I’ve sewn in one of the Oscha middle markers to let it keep a label for itself

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Today I was lucky enough to be able to convert a scrap of the beautiful Oscha Strato Polaris. This is a gorgeous cotton and wool blend wrap and it converted wonderfully into a pleated ring sling with large silver rings.

AND it’s the first sling with my new label on it!

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And I’m feeling very excited and quite grown up!

Though the washing instructions are intended for my cotton/linen ring slings that I’m planning and so I’ll have to hide that bit for most conversions.  Next time will try to make it more generic since my repertoire seems to be rapidly expanding!

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The next Buckle Sling tester I’ve sewn is a baby sized carrier made from a red Natibaby cotton ocean woven wrap and some lovely fabric called ‘Posh Dots’.  This buckle carrier was initially made with a buckled waist, but then I re-sewed it as a reverse half buckle carrier so that it has a tied waist.  This makes it much easier to change between wearing the sling apron and non-apron style, and makes it softer and more comfy on the hips.

This carrier has been put through lots of testing and has got some really positive feedback. I’m happy that the shape and proportions of the baby sized carrier work for a range of babies and toddlers. There’s just a few little tweaks to some strap angles and webbing lengths and then I think this one’s good to go travelling more widely for even more thorough testing!

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Many months ago I woke up in the night with an idea for a new buckled carrier that would (if it worked) fill what I’d thought to be a gap in the carriers available at the moment.  I wanted to create a soft buckled carrier with a flexible, adaptable fit that would work for front, back and hip carries and suit both novice and experienced sling users….

I sketched, planned and made patterns and eventually made my first prototype.  You can see details and photos of my original prototype design here: http://en.designprotection.com/design/buckletai_carrier_with_wrap_straps__initial_design_idea

The prototype worked better than I’d hoped, but there was still room for improvement….

So I’m now making new tester carriers in time for International Babywearing Week (8th-14th October).  My first toddler sized one initially looked like this:

But after initial testing with friends I worked out the worry that had been nagging me in the back of my mind and so quickly made a few little changes to make the carrier fit better and be more flexible (spot the differences!) I also finished the removable toggled hood so it’s fully complete!

I’m really pleased with how this has turned out so am now making a standard sized partner for this carrier and will be putting them through their paces very soon!  Once testing is complete and I’ve tweaked the design to work exactly how I intend, I’ll post a proper blow-by-blow description of all the features, put together some instructions and start making them for sale

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P.S. And for all you doubters out there – yes I really did find myself unable to sleep because of the carrier idea in my head. Slightly obsessive? Moi? ;D

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Here’s a gorgeous wrap conversion pod I’ve made as a present for a lovely friend.  She left me with two size 7 (5.2m) woven wraps – a stripey Storchenweige Inka and a super soft and snuggly Didymos Hortensia – and after a few days work (over a few weeks!) she now has a stripey Inka pleated ring sling (in a previous post), a size 3 Hortensia wrap and this:

It’s a fully reversible pod, with each side showing the colour of one side of the Hortensia:

The straps and hood are made from the Inka, with the hood ties made from little bits of Hortensia to coordinate. The light and single-layer hood is gently elasticated at the sides to help it to shape around baby’s head nicely when in use, and to add texture and interest when it’s hanging down. It fastens to the shoulder straps either when rolled or when fully up using wooden toggles threaded through elastic loops on the straps.

At Cathy’s request, very light padding has been added inside my normal shoulder strap pleats for the first section of the length to add just a little bit of additional comfort when carrying. The straps flare out from where they join the body to become half the width of the original wrap so that they can be spread over baby when carrying to add support.

It’s come out beautifully and I hope she loves it!  I’m hoping to post action pics soon

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I love Natibaby Sweet Place – it’s one of my all time favourite wraps (I’ve embarassingly owned this design in 6 colourways and 3 different fabric blends) and I love the look and the feel of it. This particular one is the light brown colourway with linen – supportive yet lovely and soft and pleated beautifully into a gorgeous ring sling.  I’m so pleased to be giving this one to a good friend (and looking forward to seeing it often on the school run! ;D)

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I’ve been lucky enough to have the amazing Tamsin at Violet Chameleon custom dye me some linen blend fabric to make ring slings out of.  Yesterday the first little batch arrived and I just couldn’t wait to get them made up into slings…..

…so here is a beautiful jacquard weave irish linen and cotton blend fabric gradation dyed with a gorgeous Lavender Garden theme (or Suffragette theme, depending on how you’re feeling about it I guess – either way the colours are simply stunning). I’ve got two of these scraps and here’s the first made into a simple gathered ring sling with Silver rings…

… I’m really looking forward to getting to convert a lot more of Tamsin’s gorgeous work

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This week I’ve made two lovely pleated ring slings from gorgeous, but very different stripey wraps….

First up is the lovely, bright and supportive Storchenwiege Inka, pleated with blue sling rings:

Contrasting with a classy Natibaby Nansei, which I’ve previously made a beautiful gathered sling out of, and which worked almost better with the pleats (and silver rings this time)!

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