Babies Wearing Babies

Happy Blog Day, Midlands Babywearers!

This summer is chock full of activities in the Midlands that I hope you are planning on taking advantage of. There are Farmer's Markets - Irmo has one the first and third Saturdays each month, Lexington's opens this weekend, Soda City in Downtown Columbia is every Saturday, rain or shine, and these are just the three I'm most familiar with, off the top of my head. I linked each of their Facebook pages  - go check them out, and I hope you run into another babywearer there! Yard Sales, including a huge, 23 mile one starting in Batesburg - the Peachtree 23 - you might not want to trek the whole thing on foot, babywearing, but you could, I suppose. There are movies in the park, festivals, fairs, and other, less scheduled outdoor activities like parks, barbeques, and reunions. Babywearing is a handy tool when you're doing any outdoor activity, especially over uneven ground that's difficult for strollers.

Your little one, who loves being worn, is sure to want to imitate you when you all are at home, wearing his stuffed animals, or her dolls, or anything else he comes across that he determines needs a little extra TLC. You can use any handy scrap of fabric, scarf, or muslin blanket that you have lying around as a make-shift wrap. But maybe your toddler wants a special baby carrier all his or her own, and you would like something a little more straightforward for them to use, that's designed for doll-wearing.

If you are not crafty, that's ok.

You can buy doll carriers. Many woven wrap companies offer doll wraps, including Kokadi - on their website, choose the wrap you want, and the smallest size available is "doll wrap"-  and Didymos who has a whole tab dedicated to doll wraps. You can buy child sized buckle carriers from Ergo and Boba. Doll sized Mei Tai and Ring Slings abound on Etsy. These all range in price from around $20 for handmade things on Etsy, on up to about $40 for a doll wrap from Kokadi, and the child size buckle carriers fall in between. All in all, it's actually a pretty affordable option, if your little one wants a carrier just like yours.

 

If you are crafty, that's ok, too!



T - my first model,
was unhappy with the results

G was thrilled to wear his froggy

There are tons of doll carrier tutorials out there. TONS. You can make a
DIY stretchy wrap, woven wrap, mei tai, or buckle carrier - if you have a little bit of time and materials. I consider myself only moderately crafty. I have no sewing machine, but I *can* sew.  I made a doll wrap in about the amount time it took a load of cloth diapers to go through a cycle in my washing machine. I cut up a flannel pillowcase (because I figure it's less likely to fray, and couldn't find a jersey one), and some spare woven cotton fabric I had leftover from an unfinished project (yes, I'm that sort of crafter - tons of projects started or materials bought for, few finished). The finished project is far from perfect, but it's serviceable enough for my kids to carry around their loved ones.

My doll wrap, all laid out 

Here are some links for DIY stretchy wraps (these are the easiest. No sewing needed. Just material and scissors):

Baby Doll Wrap
DIY Moby-style wrap
Hybrid stretchy/woven and Mei Tai

Mei Tai (I consider these moderate crafty level. You will need a sewing machine, ability to use a pattern, etc, or enough chutzpah to wing it)

Mei Tai Instructions



Doll Slings and Pouches - sewn
Doll pouch - crochet


Children of all ages love to imitate their parents and recreate their favorite memories with their dolls and stuffed animals during pretend play. Doll carriers are a great addition to any toy box!


I hope you get a chance to make or buy one soon, or play around with that spare muslin blanket or left over winter scarf. Saturday, June 14th, is our next meeting and we encourage you to bring your older toddlers and children who might enjoy a lesson in babywearing, too. We'll do a doll carrier demonstrations and help troubleshoot even our youngest Babywearers. For the adults at the meeting, we will demonstrate and trouble shoot some basic front, hip, and back carries. This would be a great time to finesse or tweak your favorite carry or learn a new one, or pass on your knowledge to a newer babywearer.

I hope to see all of you, your little ones and baby carriers there, at 10 a.m. in the LDS building on Assembly Street!

The weekday meeting this month will be Babywearing Yoga, led by Emily, who currently teaches a yoga class at Expecting Well. This will be a fun time for all ages, and we hope to see many of you at the LDS Church on Broad River Road, at 10 a.m. on Thursday, June 26th.

Have some friends you want to introduce to babywearing, but perhaps they aren't ready to come to a "babywearing" meeting yet? Come to the Midlands Baby and Kids Expo on Saturday, June 28th. We'll have a table, business cards, flyers, and the Lending Library available to look at and demonstrate carriers and carries or help troubleshoot a carrier you already own. This should be a great, fun, and FREE, event (that is air conditioned!), that the whole family will enjoy.

Come join the conversation on our Facebook page!