EXCERPTS FROM BABYWEARING
by Maria Blois, M.D.
Make Your Own Baby Carrier
I have added this section due to popular demand. After each of my talks, I always receive a flurry of messages asking for the specifics again on how to make your own baby carrier. Here it is…
Simple Piece of Cloth
There are many prefabricated baby carriers on the market today, but please note: it is not necessary to buy anything in order to wear your baby. You may use a simple piece of cloth for a baby carrier. For the less constructed baby carriers (tie slings, wraparounds, and torso carriers), you may already have what you need right at home: a shawl, a large receiving blanket, a towel, a sheet, or a table cloth.
Your simple piece of cloth needs to be three to five yards long, at least 25 inches wide and meet this criteria:
- mostly cotton
- breathable
- resilient
- washable
- have finished selvage (finished edges)
- have no wrong side and
- have a bit of diagonal give
The fabric must not be too thick, or you will have trouble tying it. Cotton mesh fabric is wonderful. To test if a fabric is breathable, place over your nose and mouth and breathe normally.
You need different lengths of fabric for different tying positions.
- 2.8 yards (2.6 meters) – can be used by most people as a tie sling
- 4.6 yards (4.2 meters) – all positions, if you are up to 140 pounds and 5’8”
- 5 yards (4.6 meters) – all positions, if you are up to 180 pounds and six feet
- 5.5 yards (5 meters) – all positions, if you are above 180 pounds and over six feet
If you do not have such a piece of fabric already, simply go to your local fabric store with the above guidelines and buy the appropriate fabric. You may even use a rubber band wrapped tightly around the ends instead of hemming the fabric, if you are pressed for time. Simply wrap the rubber band and then turn the fabric inside out. Making your own baby carrier from purchased fabric can cost less than five dollars and take five minutes!
(Please see www.mamatoto.com for more details.)
  
Hem fabric with a rubber band
Homemade Baby Carrier
Online Resources
- Sleeping Baby Productions
Wonderful do-it-yourself section with complete instructions for ring slings, pouches, Asian inspired carriers and even a “no sew carrier”www.sleepingbaby.net/jan/Baby/#carrier
- The Mamatoto Project, Inc.
Learn to make slings out of household items (sheets, shawls, etc) as well as strips of cloth www.mamatoto.org
Great sewing and improvising section with an active do-it-yourself forum
www.thebabywearer.com
Basic instructions for making several simple slings. Has techniques for using a bed sheet and making a tube-shaped sling
.www.jenrose.com
Online community discuss do-it-yourself techniques for making many types of soft baby carriers
www.groups.yahoo.com/group/slingsewing
www.mayawrap.com 1-888-MAYA WRAP
www.slingmemommy.comwww.elizabethlee.com (complete kit)
www.slingrings.com
www.ida.net/users/stace/sling.html
www.rebozoway.org
- Patterns for a Hybrid Sling
www.upmama.com/pages/hybridpattern.php
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