A new career in baby carriers?

Oh my poor neglected blog friends!!!!
How could I just not write for...well, three months!!!
where has my life gone???
If I think about it, May and June are always an incredibly busy time for me (due to Little Monkey's & friends' birthdays...) but this year it has been double busy...because I've started to think seriously about setting up my own small business of natural bodycare products, handmade toys, and baby carriers...things that I make anyway for myself and my family, that I am passionate about and that reflect the way I want to live...a way that is more in tune with nature (in spite of having a real problem with wasting time on my iPad...not very natural, is it!).


Proud of my new business cards!

So, in the past three months I've made prototypes, using lots of generous resources on the Internet, and giving it my own twist, to ensure I can produce quality, handmade products for those that would rather support a part-time micro-business run by a mum than a multi-national...

But today let me tell you about baby carriers, because this is the one thing I believe in that truly changed my life as a mum, for the better.

Carrying your baby in a fabric support is not new, obviously, it has always been done and many cultures still do it as a normal way of life.

Courtesy of National Geographic

 

The Western world, though, is less accustomed to the "high contact" and only a few today "wear" their babies; is this because manufacturers of baby products  push you hard to think you need the most expensive type of stroller, or because society tells you that "if you carry him  all the time, he's going to grow up spoilt" (there are plenty of studies demonstrating that in fact carrying a baby regulates his breathing and heartrate, and it's just what nature wants him to do, just like it happens in all the other mammals...until the little ones can be independent).
I learnt in the last three year (since I had my little one) that babywearing has so many advantages that it just seems  the thing to do! From the convenience and ease of use of baby carriers (you have hands and arms again, and no staircase can stop you now!), to promoting physical development of the baby, to improving mother-baby communication and even encouraging milk production, there are lots of reasons to wear your baby.
Check out Babywearing UK and The Natural Child for a full list of benefits and to know more.

If you have been following me since the beginning, you'll know that I started making baby carriers for my Little Monkey some time ago, the first being a Mei Tai based on a pattern I found on the Internet (here you can find my original blog post...), followed by a mini-Mei Tai for her doll (here), until I came across different kinds of baby carriers (ring slings, pouch slings...WOW, the world of babywearing is huge! endless possibilities according to the situation, the age of the child...).
I also realised that I wanted my Mei Tai to be different, to have wider supports on the shoulders, a wider belly support, a pocket to keep small items while on the go...to cut a long story short, I was ready to start making my own prototypes, based on the invaluable lessons learnt through experience and the numerous (and generous) resources found on the net. 

Pouch sling for a dear friend who had never used a baby carrier before...

Gorgeous Joel Dewbury fabric from the Notting Hill collection (http://www.sewscrumptious.co.uk), featured in this light twill ring sling



Me and Little Monkey demonstrating my Mei Tai prototype...how cool is the animation!!!

Friends and family have started asking me to make baby carriers for them, so this is what I have been doing in the last few months, working also on the look (they need to be pretty accessories, not just utility objects, don't they?!), and I have tons of new ideas that I can't wait to experiment...
So watch this space, because I am close to finish a website, and to show you more pretty things that are boiling in my witch's cauldron...
In the meantime, happy babywearing, and enjoy the rest of your summer!

Mini Mei Tai baby carrier for a doll

About a year ago I was introduced to the beauty of the Mei Tai, an oriental-style baby carrier that can carry comfortably newborns as well as toddlers.
I was always a fan of baby carriers (as you can learn from my post on the Mei Tai baby carrier I made myself a while ago). But I learn a lot more about them through a fellow Italian eco-mum, Tiz (she has four little monkeys though!). She makes lovely Mei Tai's, which she sells, and has also a blog worth following, My Mei Tai, which contains much information about ecoparenting, natural birth, baby-wearing, the lot.
Tiz is a generous type too, so from her blog you can download free instructions for making your own Mei Tai and even a mini version of it for carrying dolls (here; instructions are in Italian, I should add).
So, using her instructions I sewed my own mini Mei Tai for Little Miss' birthday (it only took a couple of hours...), and she has been sporting it quite a bit in town ever since: imagine people's faces when they saw my little girl trotting along with her dollie in her cute mini carrier.
Somebody the other day asked her:
"Aw, is that your baby you are carrying?"
to which she answered:
"It's not a baby, it's a DOLL".
She is quite an old lady into a little body, sometimes!
You can see I've added to Tiz' basic model a front pocket for all those little Lego bits, toy cars and animals, and minuscule pieces of paper Little Monkey LOVES carrying around. I've quickly cut and hand-sewn a felt strawberry on the pocket to match the fabric she chose for the front panel. The back panel, the pocket and the straps are in denim.

 

You can see how this can be a great way of involving a child when there is a new arrival in the family, and how children can learn to be caring through play and imitation of their parents.
You can find other  types of baby carrier for dolls on the Internet, including these you can find on:
Seven Thirty Three
A popular version by Oliver + S on Little Things to Sew
And patterns available on Etsy to buy, like this by 3Bean Studio.

Happy baby wearing!

Two in a day...Mei Tai baby carrier

Don't get too excited, my dear (one) follower, this isn't going to happen very often, but obviously today I'm very excited about my glorious brand new blogger career, so I decided to post another little project of mine.
Also, after the huge effort of the playhouse, don't expect me to post about a sugar paste life size cathedral, or something, it ain't gonna happen.

This is a short and sweet little project I undertook a few months ago, just before a trip to France - way too close to the day we had to leave, in fact; to my husband's delight, at 2 o'clock in the morning the day before the trip, I involved even him to try and finish this in time!
I wanted an easy, light way to carry around my baby daughter, who proverbially hates her very expensive Mamas and Papas pushchair; I also wanted something that wouldn't cost me a fortune. She was then already a 20 pound baby, so "sturdy" was also on the priority list. Since when she was born, I carried her most of the times (no wonder she hates her pushchair!) in a Kari Me: really great, flexible baby carrier for new borns which, unfortunately, started becoming looser with the increasing weight of little monkey. I definitely needed something heavier duty.
So, I looked and looked and read hundreds of reviews - I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to buying something on the Internet, I need to read lots of reviews until I'm convinced to buy/make something.
A Mei Tai, a traditional, Asian-inspired baby carrier, seemed to be what I was looking for. You'll find on the Internet lots of colourful examples, with the main panel made of beautiful and stylish fabrics.
I wanted something simpler, cheap and, frankly, I only had two days to make it so...again a trip to my friendly local street market to choose the right fabric, and lots of it (you need about 4 yards of bottom weight (9-10 oz) fabric, e.g. canvas, twill, corduroy, or denim); back home, I found a great tutorial on La Casa nella Prateria, a blog by Claudia, a fellow Italian, emigrated like me (thanks to her for the clear instructions and pics and a pattern in English to print and cut , which you can find here), and I was set to make my very own baby carrier.
The tree-hugger in me exulted!

Excuse the state of my hair, but we were on a ferry to Calais

It was done in a couple of evenings - well, only thanks to my other half, who managed to get my broken sewing machine to work by using masculine strength...I still use the Mei Tai, now that Little Miss is almost two, I can wear it on my front or on my back, it's the most comfortable thing ever, and she loves it too!
I even used it to do a 4 mile walk last summer...!

On a mother/sleeping baby 4 mile walk in Suffolk