Autofair

We took a trip to the Autofair last Friday and I wanted to share a few pictures with you :)
Enjoy!

~SuuZ

Ergo resizing

 Short post about the results of resizing my poopy brown Ergo to a toddler sized ergo. I also leared the finger stitch on my sewing machine and it hurts :(

~SuuZ

Pimp my Buckle Tai!

My first "real" carrier I bought was a Buckle Tai Carrier, designed by Two Momma Designs .
I was a very comfy carrier for carrying my squishes, but since my youngest has outgrown it by far, it just lied there on the pile of other carriers I barely use.

My son in his new BT

(This is without the hood)

I changed this SSC carrier for an Ergo, which was slightly bigger and therefor more comfortable. My little buddy has however outgrown this one as well. Or at least I feel like he did. According to the box he can go another 10-15 lbs in it, but I think he is too tall and when I am carrying my kiddos, I don't feel comfy when their arms sway as much as they do and their whole back isn't covered by a panel.

Anyways. I was at Wallyworld today and seen this cute superhero fabric and I remember how much duck cloth I still have. I could basically strip my Buckle Tai and redo everything. Put new fabric over all straps, including the hip strap. Make the panel bigger and add my own custom hood, some suck pads.. and voila I would have a new carrier.

The thoughts of doing this were very ambitious..

When I cut ope my Buckle Tai I instantly regretted it and felt nervous. I constantly went over the whole process in my head how to make this exactly the way I wanted it. I am horrible when it comes to make something from a pattern. I simply do NOT have the patience, so everything goes on the fly. I wing almost everything I do. And usually with success.

I took off the straps, the buckles on the side and the hip strap. I left those intact. I didn't cut in it. The extra fabric on it wasn't going to bother me since it was going to be covered anyways. It would add strength to it, if anything.

I used the size of the body panel of my latest Mei Tai I made and traced it. I did not leave the body panel square however. I did a half moon of some sort on each side, so the fabric would't run my son on his legs or arms. I used a double duck cloth for the inside and on the outside I used black for the inside of the carrier and the superhero print for the outside.

I kept the shoulder straps and hip straps the way they are. I put a new piece of fabric over them and sowed the whole thing shut. So it looks like the straps have been black forever. It added some extra padding to my shoulders to do it this way.

I started getting really excited. This was going to look awesome! It was time to piece and sow everything together. This was the easiest in my opinion.
I added a hood I designed myself. The hood is attached with snaps. I also made suck pads to go with it. My son really likes to chew on everything, and this way my new straps would be protected :) I put washcloth on the inside of my suck pads so they will absorb moisture very well. I also added taggies so he has something to keep him occupied with.

I am really happy with the result. Can't wait to show it off :)

 Suck Pads

I used wash cloth on the inside for extra moist absorption 

Buckle Tai with suck pads

~SuuZ

Dye-ing my wrap

Ofcourse I am a total newbie at tie dying or dying in general and I bought about 6 yards of Osnaburg cloth to make my own baby wrap to carry my boy around.

I went to Walmart for dye. I used a Tulip Tie Dye kit and I absolutely underestimated the amount of dye i would need to dye that much fabric.

Anyways, I got home, washed the wrap a few times on hot setting and tumble dried it afterwards.

The next day I spread it out in my living room and made a spiral of some sort in it. I tied it with the bands that came with the kit.

I am stubborn so I did not read well enough into this whole process. I did not scour or anything else for preparations. I made my cloth wet under the faucet..(yeah.. raise your eyebrows at me...) and then I went to town with my ONE tie dye kit.

Well let me tell you, that those bottles of dye don't last long lol. I was already scared I would not have enough dye, but there was no way back now.

I let it sit the entire day..well for about 8-9 hours and rinsed it out. This is the result, but it was still wet. I liked it, but I didn't. I wanted a LOT more blue in my wrap and this was not it.My happy butt went back to Walmart and I bought some powder to tub dye it, in hopes of keeping some of the swirl in it and filling the white gaps with a sea blue. Well, sea blue-ish it is, more a very light turquoise , but I lost all my swirly patterns.

Here is my little boy sleeping on my back. So it is comfy enough for him.

I can even carry my almost 4 year old in it.

I am going back to a craft store this time though and buy the stuff I need to dye it again, but this time I will use the Ice Dying Technique to make a Galaxy Wrap. I will keep you updated.

~SuuZ