Make your own baby sling!

I've always wanted to do a "tutorial" of sorts on this blog but I've never really felt like I had much to offer. But lately I've been helping and showing others how to make baby slings. And I'm no expert on sewing, on the contrary, so that is why I decided to post this. If I can do this, then you can too. All you really need is a sewing machine or access to one, thread and of course fabric to make your sling.

1. Buy 2 yards of fabric.

I've used thicker "waverly" and "cotton duck" fabrics and I've used corduroy, that's more of a medium fabric and also regular "quilting" fabric which is thinner. Some instructions I've read have recommended using the thick fabrics or doubling the quilting type for a strong enough sling. I think it's not going to make a big difference, the thinner will hold just fine. Just find some fabric you love and buy 2 yards!
~Buy 1/8 yard of batting if you want to make padding for older babies/toddlers using the hip carry position. (see #15 below)
2. Unfold your fabric and CUT it length-wise to be 22 inches wide. So you have a piece of fabric 22 inches by 2 yards. (you will have two identical pieces actually but will only be using one.)
Usually this is just about half of the total fabric. The other half that you won't be using is enough to make a whole 2nd sling. So, save for later or make one for a friend!


3. Fold your fabric in half so it is wide, "hamburger" style if you will:) Have the cute edges to your right.



4. Now fold your fabric up so it is narrow, "hot dog" style this time. the four corners of your fabric will be in the top right hand corner.


5. Measure yourself in the front only from shoulder to hip.

The is basically where your sling will sit, measure to the place on your hip where you would like the sling to hit. My measurement is about 25 inches. It's not a big deal to be SO exact on this. Just get a good idea of how big around you need your sling.

6. Mark that measurement across the top of your "sling" from the left top corner to X number of inches. I use a pin as a marker.
7. Now measure across the bottom of the "sling" your original top measurement (25 for me) and then add 3 inches, (25 + 3 = 28). Mark this with a pin or fabric marker or pen, whatever you have:)



You now have two measurements at the top and bottom of your fabric that are 3 inches difference.

8. Now CUT (ahhh wait, wait. Make SURE you have your CUT edges to the right of your marked measurements and the UNcut part of the fabric is on the far left side, where your measurements start.)

Ok, now CUT your fabric from "25" inches to "28" inches making a rounded half smile cut.



9. Unfold your fabric down so you now have a full smile, rounded edge.



10. Now comes the sewing:) Sew the rounded edge ends together at about 1/4" in.
(SEE #15 and #20 for "idea" to start with sewing the edges before this seam.)


11. Turn your SLING inside out and flatten out the edge you just sewed. You are going to "encase" the seam you just made by sewing at about 1/2" in. The edges that are now inside the sling will be sewn inside your new seam.


12. Now open your sling and you will now sew the seam you just made down. It sticks up, you just fold it down to one side and sew it flat. (Be sure you you "opened" up the sling so you are sewing this down to only one layer of the fabric!)


That is called a French Seam!


14. Now make a 1/4" seam around the edge of one side of the whole sling, either side- it doesn't matter.

Some people like to iron or pin before they sew their seam but I think it's just as easy to just fold as I go.


15. On the other side of the sling you can either do the same thing and make a 1/4" seam and be done! OR you can make a wide 2" or so seam/pocket so you can put padding in for an older babies/toddlers legs. The padding is nice for them because of the position you carry them, the hip carry, their legs stick out the bottom of the sling and the padding cushions their little thighs.
Personally I think the padding is nice but not necessary. I have made and used both and Naomi didn't seem to have a preference:)
So to make the padding pocket/seam you need to realize that I am NOT an expert at this sewing thing and am yet to have my seam turn out perfect. Because the fabric is a rounded edge (from the french seam) it makes for imperfectness on my part when I sew this final edge. Some of you may have ideas or the solution, maybe I should sew the sides before I make the french seam. I'll have to try that next time.
16. Ok, so I fold the edge of my fabric about 1/4" and then fold it out about 2 inches or so. So your rough edge is folded over but you have enough space to stuff padding in a minute.
17. Tack the fabric down at the french seam to hold in place.


18. Measure out about 3" to one side of that center seam and sew your wide seam down, leaving an unsewn portion between where you started and the part you tacked to the french seam.

19. Sew all the way around, keeping the seam about 2" wide.


20. Once you near the center seam (french seam) stop about 3 inches short of it.

This is where I run into trouble:) I have "extra" fabric on the back side since it's a curved seam and I just make a "pleat" with the extra at the center seam. I pinned it so I knew where I would sew it, (the first picture). It's not perfect but it's fine and it doesn't look bad, I just need to figure out how to avoid that. Like I said above, maybe I should do these edges first, and then the french seam.



21. Measure about 8" from the center seam. Sew a straight line stitch across your 2" seam, closing off the seam at that point. Do this on each side.


22. Now find a spatula or wooden dowel or maybe even broom stick handle for stuffing the padding in.


23. Stuff batting in on each side from the center openings to the closure stitches you just made until it feels soft, firm enough and not lumpy. I filled mine to about the opening from where I was stuffing, so about 3" each side from the center seam.



24. Sew the padding pocket closed with another straight stitch across your 2" seam.



You should have two padding pockets to either side of the french seam and just the openings on each side of the center there to sew up!
25. Finish your 2" seam to the center on each side. Remember that I had to tuck my extra fabric under the center seam on one side. So if you do to don't feel bad:)
26. Viola! You are DONE. You have successfully made a baby sling and they are SOOO easy to use!



This particular sling I made for my (awesome) sister-in-law Erica who just had her 3rd baby boy!!!! Henry George Low. I hope she likes it!
Here are some links to sites that show ways to wear them and also the instructions that I based mine off of.
They sell some really cute slings but they are priced from $40-$60's. Hotslings has a sale going one and a few sings are $28-$30's. Making one like mine costs about $5-$10, depending on how expensive your fabric is (and that you only use 1/2 of it to make one sling, one yard.)
Granted theirs are "perfect" :) and they come in some neat fabrics, they often have a pocket on the outside, and some are reversable and/or organic! (Yes, you can buy organic baby clothing too.) So they have a nicer product so they charge a lot but I think it's really A LOT to pay. So I make them:)
http://www.mykarmababy.com/pages/BabySlingPattern.php
http://www.mykarmababy.com/pages/AllKarma.php
http://www.mykarmababy.com/pages/instructions.php
http://www.hotslings.com/
http://www.hotslings.com/s.nl/it.I/id.5/.f

Well, did you guess correctly?

I had my "big" ultrasound this morning. We dropped Naomi off at a friends house and Zach and I went to the Community Radiology place to have my ultrasound. The tech took pictures and measurements of the babies head/brain, spine, arms, legs, stomach, liver, kidneys, bladder, heart, heart beat.
After a while she said, "do you want to know what you are having?"
We said yes and she showed us his stuff.
That's right, it's a boy!
I was surprised really but there was no mistaking if this little baby is actually a boy or not:)
I've been in a "girl" mode so it's taking my mind a minute to get accustomed to being able to do both 'modes.' So there you have it, it's a boy!
It still seems surreal that I'm actually having another baby, but to see him there on the ultrasound screen was really exciting.
I need to go shopping for boy clothes now! I have boxes and boxes of baby-Naomi's age girly clothes and shoes but I'm going to start all over now:)
I'm open to name suggestions:) We have a few in mind but nothings set in stone just yet.

Oops...

We rushed out the door and arrived at church about five minutes late as usual. We walked as quietly as we could into Sacrement meeting and found a seat on the second row. As we sat down Zach wispered to me,
"This isn't our ward."
I was totally perplexed.
"Really?"
I looked around a little and sure enough I didn't recognize a soul and then the clincher was the bishopric on the stand was not our bishopric.
Still utterly confused I said,
"I don't get it, what's going on?"
Then it dawned on us both.
Daylight Savings.
I told Zach to ask the couple next to us what ward this was. He did, they said Rockville.
Rockville meets at 8:30 a.m.
Our ward, Kensington, meets at 10:30.
I realized that their Sacrament meeting would be ending in about 5 more minutes and we were about an hour early for church.
Nice. But at least we were on time for once!

Halloween Stuff

So we carved a pumpkin last night, we thought one between the three of us would be sufficient. It totally was. Naomi was surprising really excited about the goopy insides, she helped pull them all out and then put them back again! What a great helper:) She turned the pumpkin face in to a shape sorter when Zach got the eyes, nose and mouth popped out, she was proud of herself for figuring out where they all went. And we didn't have any little votive candles so we used a small jar candle. Our pumpkin smelled just a bit like vanilla sugar cookies:)..... Naomi LOVED the pumpkin once it was lit up. She wanted to "hold it!!!!" and then kept saying "smiley face, CHEESE!" It was definitely a successful activity!

And some other fun was the ward trunk or treat last Saturday and trick-or-treating here at our apartments on Monday night. At the trunk-or-treat Zach dressed up and really wanted me to as well but I hadn't even thought about it and seriously had nothing to be. Naomi's little friend Abby and her mom Cassie hung out with us, the two girls had a great time together:) Our apartment complex sponsored a trick-or-treat event on Monday, with candy being handed out in the foyer of each building not having to knock doors, they were all decorated and festive. Naomi totally loved it, she would put on a show for anyone that asked her "what does a monkey say??" We didn't even go to all the buildings and she has waaaaay too much candy for a one-year-old. I guess I'll just have to eat it.....

And so here we are on Halloween and we've been trick-or-treating twice already and probably won't go tonight:) We'll have to light our pumpkin and tell some scary stories for Naomi.

TAG I'm always "It"

But I've not responded to the past 10 or so tags:) Sorry everyone, I'm just lazy- I like how Megan described it so nicely.
So each one has been a little different. I think I'm going to do the 10 years ago one etc list of 5 things. I can't seem to think of 6-7 facts about myself that no one knows that are interesting enough to share or that I actually want to share now:)

5 things I was doing 10 years ago-October 1997.

1. I was a new Sophomore at MC. I was thrilled to be at Mountain Crest finally, not still at South Cache or as it was called "The Freshman Center."
2. I was feeling sorry for myself that I wasn't old enough to drive or date. I waited until 16 miss goody goody me. But I still felt sorry for myself, I wanted to go to the school dances!!!
3. I was riding to school with my big brother Jesse who was a Senior and feeling pretty cool about that. Also I was making friends with some of his friends with I felt immensely cool about. They all thought I was such a little sister nerd I'm so sure!
4. I was receiving a steady dose of "Jesse" wisdom, attitude, music etc. Much to my parents dislike.
5. I was practicing alllllll the time with Caprielles. Every day after school. I LOVED it!

5 things on my To Do list today:

1. Dentist appt. at 11:30
2. Call to make appt for flu shot for me
3. Call Naomi's doctor for blood work lab referral address info.
4. Grocery shopping
5. Get my Maryland drivers license already!

5 things I would do if I was a millionaire
(must copy Dani a bit on this one, it just makes sense)

1. Pay for law school
2. Buy a new car (or at least newer car:)
3. Invest
4. Invest
5. Invest- or maybe go on a vacation or two.......

5 things I will never wear again

1. jellies
2. cheer skirts
3. "scrunchies" (the cloth sewn around an elastic, for your hair)
4. perm. kind of cheating, it's not an article of clothing, I know.
5. a backpack

5 favorite toys

1. mini Lego's
2. Easy Bake Oven
3. Play dough
4. Tree House (not a actual toy, I know but I loved it)
5. My barbie house and accessories!

So now I'm supposed to TAG 5 people. But you should all be tagged if you read this.

On My Mind

Moon Sand

When I was in New York with Nat we went to the huge and super fun Toys 'R Us. I found a hands-on display of Moon Sand and decided to buy a pack:)

It's a play dough-like idea but definitely different. For one thing, it's sand, not dough. So for those of you who haven't had the fun of playing with it for yourselves, I'll outline the new product. (I think it's new, but I'm not really up to speed on these kind of things.)

Pros:

Never dries out

Does not stick to clothing or any other surface, except fingers a little:) Kind of like sand at the beach.

Can be vacuumed up if it's on the floor, no problem

It's a cool texture

Doesn't leave oily residue on my table like my home-made play dough.

Is a lot like sand at the beach, if you had enough you could build a sand castle!

Cons:

You need a dish or pan to play with it in, it can get all over otherwise

It is lacking that molding ability you get with play dough- no rolling out snakes:)

Really that's it. The second "con" is really the most major drawback but for Naomi it wasn't an issue. She had fun raking and scooping and dumping and rubbing it all over. Pretty much what she likes to do with play dough. So there you go, your own personal product review.

Also on my mind...

My sewing machine. I love having one! I'm no expert sewer but I'm coming up with small projects and am totally amazed at how many things I need to sew now that I have my sewing machine out and available! I'm also amazed that it's way easier than I thought. Also it's kind of addicting. I love buying fabric, I just need to figure out how to make it into great finished products more often.

Recently I have sewn a hoodie towel for a friend as a baby gift, made a baby sling (again), fixed about 5 various items of clothing that needed a little help, Finished the edges on a little quilt for my wards Super Saturday- we are tying quilts for humanitarian aid, and "finished" the edges of some swaddling blankets I never got around to when I was using them for Naomi. So really I'm pretty proud of myself! I'm just getting started.

And another thing...

I have TONS of apples. My mom sent a bunch back with Zach when he was in Utah a few weeks ago and then again with Natalie when she came. I've eaten almost all the granny smith (my favorite) and have lots of a red kind.

I want to make applesauce. So I'm going to Google some recipes but if any of you have some great ones please share.

And- Goodbye to thebabysitter hanging high chair. Naomi is too big for it now. She doesn't weigh too much but her legs are too long, she can push her feet against the pedestal-type thing that holds our table up. She pushes so far that it nearly slides the chair off. Soooo. I bought her a booster seat! She LOVES it. She picked pink, not blue. And wants to sit in it all the time.

And lastly:)

I took Naomi to her new doctor here in Maryland yesterday for her "18" month check up. Naomi is 20 months but oh well:) Dr. Kadow was soooo nice! I liked her a lot. But the receptionist was a bit nasty but what can you do?

Naomi was "off the charts" for height. She's 35.5 inches tall and I guess that puts her above the 97 percentile for height. I'm not sure where she's getting her height. For weight she's totally average. The downside to this height thing is that she keeps growing out of her pants! Right now she's in some 18-24 mo. pants that are looking just a little bit like floods:)

So there's my random thoughts. Sometimes I just need to treat this blog like a journal.

OH, and this is post 100 for me! yay!

Crazy, Crazy, Fun!

I've been 'crazy' busy with all things fun this past week.

My little sister Natalie came to visit and went home early Tuesday morning. I'm now back to all the boring day-to-day things like laundry:)

Well to sum it up we shopped, toured, shopped, rode trains, taxis, and walked, walked, walked. Here's a sampling of our pictures, seriously, there are lots more:)

At the Capital, on day 1 of our adventure. Naomi was loving her glasses:)

Naomi at the U.S. Botanical Gardens, there is a cute little children's playhouse.

Our hotel! We were on the 43rd floor. Directly across the street, above the subway stop was Ground Zero, where the World Trade Centers used to be. We couldn't see much but it was kind of cool to be there anyway. Next to our hotel was very old chapel, St Paul's something. The tombstones seemed to fit the season!

Central Park, in the rain. It rained all afternoon! It was plenty warm just wet. We had fun anyway. Shopping on Broadway in SoHo was a definite highlight! We shopped most at my new favorite store, H&M.

Times square, it was like Vegas. I had no idea. Lots of energy and fun stores. We went to the HUGE Toys R' Us. This is a picture of me at the Empire State building on Friday, we couldn't even see the top because of the rain clouds!

Madame Tussuad's. There's a nice profile preggo shot for you all. I'll let you name the celebs:)

WICKED!!!!! LOVED the show!!!!!

I want to see it again! It was fantastic!

We made it back to our hotel after being stranded at a dead end subway stop. We caught a cab and fell into our beds. This is a view of the Brooklyn bridge from our room, night and day. We had a corner room with fantastic views our both windows. Too bad we were too busy to enjoy it much:)


Saturday morning at the Empire State Building, we left a few minutes later for D.C. on the train. It's a nice way to travel, so much less hassle than the airport and cheaper than flying too.

Saturday afternoon, back in D.C. We went to the Museum of Natural History was really fun tons of cool things to see and NO LINE. We hit up the National Archives (think National Treasure but way more boring with long lines) and then here. Stegosaurus was my favorite dinosaur as a kid.

The fabulous Hope Diamond! There was a lot of gorgeous jewelry on display. The Sapphires were the prettiest.

Pretty flowers in the Art something garden:)

Zach and Naomi picked us up at the museum and we drove over to the White House.

Sunday afternoon we took Natalie to the D.C. Temple. It's so huge and beautiful. There is a pathway you can take all the way around it. There was a little bit of construction going on in the back, Naomi of course took advantage of that.

The Jefferson Memorial. Some Asian businessmen thought Naomi was so cute they were snapping pictures of her running around, using of course their insanely awesome cameras!

We met Megan (Maughn) Roe here who lives in Arlington and then we WALKED to the Washington monument, then down to the Lincoln memorial and then back around to the Jefferson again where we were parked. It was quite the work out for lazy ol' me. But the weather was sooooo beautiful. I loved living here that day:)

We had so much fun, but I think it wore me out a little:) Maybe it was all that walking... New York was so fun, I only wish we could have stayed longer! It's an expensive city that's for sure. I would love to go shopping more and be able to buy more! Also there were quite a few Broadway shows we wanted to see, like Mary Poppins! And NY never sleeps! Seriously. After our show was out we got some dinner (about midnight) and the streets were packed, getting a cab later on took us a few minutes because all the 100 cabs that passed had passengers:) It's a huge place. My first visit was fantastic and now I can't wait to go again!

Once we were back in D.C. we were amazed at how CLEAN the streets were here compared to NYC! I'm so glad Nat was here to make me get out and see more of the sites, it's really a fantastic place I live in, and the weather has been so perfect. (it's raining now).

So that's our crazy fun week in a huge long post:)

Clouds!

So our toaster oven has been on it's way out for a while now. We've been in denial, hanging on even when it's not meant to be.
First the button to "start" toasting would not work, it did however if you jammed it in with a toothpick for the duration of the toast. Well then the "timer" stopped working, so instead of beeping when the toast was done, and stopping, it would just eternally toast your bread.
Solution: unplug when you are finished toasting and plug in when you want something toasted. "Plugged in" meant always on. "Unplugged" was off.
So due to these new developments I've had a few darker toasts lately, due to forgetting I have to watch and remember to get my toast out without the luxury of a "beep" and the toaster then turning itself off.

Today I got a bagel out for a snack for Naomi. I gave her half the top and put the bottom side and other half of top in the toaster oven and plugged it in.
I proceeded to get out some hamburger to thaw for dinner, called Zach in the process to tell him to maybe stop and get some taco seasoning on his way home- we were out. We decided to just use seasonings we had and make our own, fun!
Then Naomi from her high chair excitedly points up in the kitchen and says "Clouds! mama, clouds!!!" I spun around (still on the phone) and see beautiful white puffs of "clouds" filling my kitchen!!!
I ran over to the toaster, knowing my bagels are black, and before I got there to unplug it I saw them inside. There is a glass door on the front if you're not familiar with toaster ovens. I stared for a half second at two little fires where my bagels should have been! I unplugged it quick. and closed the kitchen doors for a second so I could get the windows open before the smoke made it to the fire alarm. All the while I still had Zach on the phone:) I was telling him that the bagels are "freaking on FIRE!" He asked about 10 times if they were going out or if I needed to get the fire extinguisher. They were going out, and were done flaming after about a minute.
Zach was on his way home during our conversation and as soon as he walked in he took the toaster oven, with newly formed charcoals still inside straight out to the garbage.
So that was my first actually burning, burning something in the kitchen, with flames and all! I've been trying to get the smokey smell out but I'm afraid it's lingering. candles, windows open and room freshener are hopefully helping:)
Clouds, honestly how funny is that? And it's a good thing she told me too!
Now I just need to go toaster shopping.....

What's your blog rated?

www.justsayhi.com/bb/blog_rating
I saw this on a friends blog, I guess I'm safe for the whole family!
So grab a bag of popcorn and snuggle up! I need to work on my story line and plot a little I think..... Characters are ok though:)
FYI: My rating was based on two occurrences of the word "steal."

Pregnancy....

Well, I am through my 1st trimester of this pregnancy, as Ashley pointed out:) I have been feeling a lot better but not fully "well" just yet. It's strange that I am actually getting used to feeling kinda yucky. It's an off and on thing, I can keep the nausea in check if I just remember to eat. ALL THE TIME. I had forgotten that funny detail about pregnancy; eat small meals often. It's hard to remember and sometime snacky things don't cut it. I need "healthy" type foods to feel really good. But I eat less at meals too, I just can't "stomach" as much as a regularly would have been able to.
So my days goes as such: Breakfast- bowl of cereal and juice or fruit. An HOUR later- a snack like yogurt, fruit, toast. An hour later- cookie? drink of something!!! An hour later- snack again. An hour later- Lunch. Anyway you get the idea.... no wonder I'm already looking so pregnant!
But yeah, over all I'm feeling pretty good. I mean I do my hair, shower, put make up on and go places. That's saying something to how I was for the past two months. I even clean a little and cook again! Zach is thankful;)
And back to the looking pregnant thing- I do look pregnant. Already. I'm more ok with it every day since I'm 15+ weeks now but 3-4 weeks ago I felt like it was waaaay too early to be showing. But then again this is my second pregnancy and I guess you just show earlier. And no, I won't be posting a belly picture here. Not yet anyway.
So lastly, all you mommas out there, remind me where to get some cute maternity clothes, but more especially CHEAP cute maternity clothes:) I emptied out my maternity bag the other day and was underwhelmed. Besides that, I'm not really maternity size yet, I'm that horrid in between. Ugh.
I have my first appt with my new doctor here in DC in a few weeks, on the 25th. I will be 17 weeks and I need to double check but I think they will be doing an ultrasound, probably finding out the gender!!!!!! I'll be sure to post what I'm having:)