Slingin' Babies

Well I finally finished it. I bought this green fabric back before Christmas and had every intention of making Baby C's sling months ago... but then life happened and it sat in a pile on the floor by my sewing machine. I have a pouch sling that I used for Baby C when she was younger but I am quite a bit bigger at 8 months pregnant so needless to say it doesn't fit and I actually prefer the roominess of a ring sling for a newborn but wasn't prepared to pay the high retail cost for one when I knew I could make one for myself. I purchased the rings from slingrings.com - they are a lightweight aluminum and the fabric is 100% cotton.

I ended up making this project a lot more complicated than it actually had to be but I am happy with the way it turned out and I think Baby C is too - she can get more than a few minutes of mama cuddles in before my arms, belly and back start to ache (and I really appreciate that too!). I was having some difficulty on Wednesday night (when I thought I broke my sewing machine) because it couldn't handle the thickness of the pleats. I maybe made this sling a bit too thick but I wanted something warm for those chilly spring days with a newborn and for winter with Baby C (even though it took so long that Baby C and I nearly missed the winter part!). I was stressing out quite a bit until I found these instructions from Jan Andrea on how to cut out a significant part of the fabric from the pleats without compromising the strength of the sling. After I found these it worked beautifully. Thank you!