Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Home made Mei Tai stlye baby carrier



So after lots of discussion with some fellow baby wearers, I decided to try my luck at making a Mei Tai style baby carrier. I trawled the internet in search of a pattern but of course each site I looked at all gave different measurements! So as per my usual way of making things and with an image in my head, I made up a pattern of how I thought it should work.

I needed some fabric first, so I dragged my patient husband to Spotlight in search of some suitable fabric for the body of the carrier. I was thinking along the lines of denim and was super lucky to find some denim fabric in the clearance section, bargain! For the waist band and shoulder straps I used some dark brown corduroy that I had at home left over from a cowboy vest I made for a friend's son a while ago. I padded the waist & hip area with polar fleece, as well as the shoulder area. Cut the denim fabric to shape including a hood and then sewed it all together.

I was very happy with the finished product and have received a lot of positive comments on it! I have even had people come up to me and ask me where I bought it from! I still have to sew some tabs onto the shoulder straps so I can attach the hood but it's finished otherwise! I have been using it almost daily, it is super comfy and I just love it!
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Friday, March 18, 2011

St Patrick's Day!

St Patrick's day was yesterday, you know where they celebrate all things Irish and drink Guinness and green beer. It's lots of fun, though I didn't head out to the pub yesterday I did have a great time mucking about with my kids and having lots of fun in our "Irish" hats.

7 years ago I was holidaying in Dublin with my husband. It was a childhood dream of mine to one day spend St Patrick's day in Dublin, and that I got to do! I was then pregnant with our first child and we brought the hats back with us from that holiday! They have since come out for every St Pat's day since.



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Medium Nappies!

So I finally started and finished one medium AI2 nappy woot woot! I purchased the blue hibiscus print poly PUL fabric from Nappies Covered a couple of months ago but hadn't had the time to start working with it until now. It is such a summery print that I wanted to have it made for summer but Autumn will have to do!

I love the poly PUL for a nappy as the stretch in the fabric helps to make for easy nappy changes and a good fit too. The inner of the nappy is stay dry white suedecloth and there are two snap in foldable 2 layered bamboo bosters for absorbency, giving 8 layers of absorbency.







I have made some medium nappies before this one, quite a while ago now, and I made them with hook & loop, though I now prefer to use snaps on the nappies. I decided to alter my original medium nappy pattern which I made myself, making a few changes to accommodate the snaps, inlcuidng shortening the front and back wings. I thought that would be easy enough but I am not 100% happy with it so I need to tweak it a bit more before I sew the next one as the sides are too low on the front panel and it doesn't sit right. Hard to tell from the pics but I know that's how it is and, as I'm a bit of a perfectionist at times, I need to change it on the next nappy I make!








On another nappy related note, a girlfriend of mine is due to have her second child early June and she has asked me to make her a stash of nappies! I am very excited to be making some for her baby and feel very priviledged that she asked me!
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