I made my first home-made baby carrier when Sarah was a little over 2 months old. My utilitarian ring-sling has carried Sarah many miles, soothed her to sleep on countless fussy nights, and served as the ultimate "don't touch my baby" contraption during flu season. (Store patrons pause before reaching for your baby when she is nestled closely to your chest :-). Alas babies grow. I used our ring sling was at my husband's mountain bike race in the early fall and I will admit, for the first time I was sore the next day after carting her around. The ring sling does distribute weight across your back but not enough for her as she got bigger. Lucky for me I ran across this tutorial: http://scandiute.blogspot.com
The Mei Tai is an Asian inspired carrier that is supposed to work wonderful for carrying toddlers. Mothers in my sewing group have mentioned wearing their toddler on their back while pregnant and how it is awsome for "balancing them out."
When I made my ring sling I was going for cheap cheap cheap. I didn't know if I would like weawring my baby so I checked out the red-tag fabric at Jo-Ann's. I made my ring sling for a grand total of $12 (If I remember correctly :-). This time I wanted to have some fun with fabric. A Mei Tai will set you back between $75-$125+++ if you purchase one so I gave myself a small fabric allowance. My total fabric purchase came to about 20 dollars after utilizing my coupons. I purchased chocolate duck cloth for straps and the inner "strong" layer. I then choose two coordinating home decor fabrics one chocolate, teal, lime poka-dots, and the opposite a green and brown floral. After I made my purchase it lived in a bag on my sewing table for at least 3 months. **I already had a large piece of fleece at home that I used for my strap padding.**
Fast-forward from the mountain bike race through a few teething nights and I wanted it done stat. Several nights at my kitchen table later a beautiful "octopus" of sling emerged. I didn't have the opportunity to use the sling until the new year when Sarah was closer to 26 pounds and I was pregnant again. It took a bit of a learning curve to put it on ( and unfortunately Sarah also fought it at first, not being as familiar as her old ring-sling). The end result however, was great!
Modifications to pattern: I omitted the hood. I made the carrier a bit bigger (following the author's suggestions for making a toddler sling). I opted to make the sling reversible. The pictures are of my husband wearing Sarah while we went snowshoeing in the winter of 2011!
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