Baby Sling

Do you see this look a lot?  I sure do.


Here, in case you're not familiar with this particular look, let me translate:

"HEY!  What the?  MAMA!  Pick me up!  Put down that (insert one of the following:  camera, laundry, sandwich, brother, shovel, makeup, fabric, and so on and so forth) and HOLD ME!  Mama?  Mama!!  It's an emergency!  I might die!  Hold me!"

Yes, this is why we call this little man my barnacle.  Because, seriously, he is more addicted to his mama than I am to sugar.  And that's saying a lot.

So on that note, I finally broke down and made a baby sling.  I have no idea what took me so long, it was ridiculously easy.  Seriously.  


I must digress for a moment, because I'm sure you're eyeing that hair of his.  I know, I know, it's rather Trump-esque.  I just can't bring myself to cut it yet.  Cutting it means he's probably going to lose the curls (I swear, it's curly, not just long and fuzzy), and I can't let that happen.  Not on my watch.

OK, back to sewing.  You're going to think I'm crazy, but I couldn't quite find a tutorial that fit the bill 100%, so I kind of used 3 tutorials to guide me in my sewing.

The first one I found was from Dabbled.   Now, let me say something about this tutorial.  See how she says you should buy 2 yards of fabric?  Then she shows a picture of 2 nicely folded pieces of fabric.  Being an idiot and not following the rule of "measure twice, cut once", I thought that surely meant 1 yard each of 2 prints, so you get a reversible design.  So I cut 1 yard each of 2 prints.  Then I figured out that, no, you need 2 continuous yards.  Dumb!  Anyway, what I like about this design is that she uses a 2 yard piece folded in half for extra holding power.  The instructions were slightly less than clear, however, which is why I got a second opinion . . .

I found the second tutorial at Sling Your Baby.  Best of all, it's a video!  Yay, it's so easy to see exactly what is going on!  I didn't follow this exactly, as I used one print folded over instead of 2 prints sewn together, but I found it wonderfully helpful.  She even shows you what a french seam is (I didn't even know there was such a thing) and how to make one (super easy!). 

I found the last tutorial at My Karma Baby.  It's helpful because it almost fell between the two above.  It's a sling made from one cut of fabric, not doubled over.  It just helped clear up what I'm supposed to do, and I preferred the measurements she provided. 

So give it a try!  If you don't have a baby, you know someone who does.  It takes 2 yards of fabric (or if you want your interior to be a different fabric, 4 yards, but it makes 2 slings), one cut, a few simple and almost straight stitches, and less than an hour. Perfect.