Make your own over the shoulder baby holder!

It is so easy to sew a your own over the shoulder baby holder or baby sling. You just need some basic sewing skills and fabric and this basic baby sling pattern. Wearing a baby in a sling is one of the best ways to bond with and nurture your little one.

How to make your own baby sling: Baby Sling Pattern
1. Picking out your fabric. This is the best part. There are so many fabulous prints out there, it may be hard to choose. My favorite baby sling fabric is the kind found in the home decor section of your local sewing store. These come on large rolls. People are often tempted by the beautiful selection that quilting fabric offers, but this is not strong enough fabric to make a baby sling out of unless you double it up. Some people love fabric with a bit of stretch, so look for a 97% cotton/ 3% lycra blend.

Over the shoulder baby holder fabric resources:
As always, I feel it is very important for mothers to support other mothers, so if you can, try to buy from a work at home mom (wahm). Here are some fabric resources I pulled together, but if you are or know of a wahm that has an online fabric store please tell me so that I can add it!

Be sure to prewash all your material!

Quilting (good if doubled up): Sew Mama Sew. They have a huge selection of very stylish fabrics-definitely what I would use for one of our slings if we used this weight.
Home Decor: Try here, they have good prices and you can get swatches, too. We like to use Waverly prints, they are so gorgeous.
Stretch: This is always a challenge. Beautiful prints in this kind of fabric are always hard to come by. Try this website. Be sure to get fabric that stretches widthwise and not lengthwise. You do not want your baby sling to stretch out too much as you wear it.
Fleece: Fleece is the best baby sling for winter. It is so soft and cozy for your baby. Try here to buy it by the yard. Be sure to see how much it stretches. You can hold the fabric down with your knee and stretch it alongside a ruler. However much it stretches is how much smaller you should cut it. Fleece is synthetic and does not need to be prewashed.
Minky fabric: This is that oh so soft material that baby blankets are made out of. Nothing in the world is softer, I wish all my clothes were made out of this! Buy it here: MINKY, you'll be working with a wonderful wahm. Minky is synthetic and does not need to be prewashed.
Solarveil: It protects your baby's skin from 95% of the sun's harmful rays if you double it up. Always double layer it: it is too thin for just one layer. It is great for the pool, shower, or any kind of water, and dries in just minutes. A great summer baby sling. It is a bit scratchy at first, but softens up with every wash and will soon become your favorite sling. Beware: sizing is easy for someone that is on the small side. If you are small, you can cut the fabric widthwise, making the stretch go along the width. If you are above a 26" shoulder to hip measurement you will have to cut lengthwise, so be sure you cut the fabric about 1"-2" shorter. Also, when you make a baby sling out of solarveil, remember that you will be wearing this without clothes on, so you may want to cut it a little bit shorter. If this is confusing at all, feel free to email me here. Find Solarveil here. Solarveil is synthetic and does not need to be prewashed.

Other than the above mentioned, you will want to avoid synthetic materials for babies. Polyester is just awful for a baby sling. We want your baby to be as comfy as possible in the sling!

With this pattern, you'll need about two yards of whatever fabric you choose for your baby sling. You will be able to get two slings out of this so make one for a friend or an extra one for yourself while one is being washed (or, if you are like me, you may have to save that fabric for when you mess up the first piece!).

2. Cut your fabric lengthwise to about 22". You should now have a 2 yard by 22" piece of fabric.

3. Fold fabric in half lengthwise, then fold up so that all four open corners are to the right.

4. Measure the top edge of the sling. This should be 1/2" longer than your shoulder to hip measurement. (see our sizing page for more info on the shoulder to hip measurement) Mark that (in my case, 25") on the upper right edge of the folded fabric. Now, measure the bottom edge. The measurement for this should be the top edge measurement + 3 (in my case 28").
Now, cut a half smile from the bottom mark to the top mark.

5. Unfold fabric widthwise and sew the two ends together along the curve that you just cut.

6. Now, turn the pouch inside out. You will now encase the seam that you just made. Be sure that all of the excess fabric from your seam on the other side is encased in your new seam.
Next, sew the encased sling down. Voila, you have made your first french seam.

7. Now that your french seam is done, you will sew the raw top and bottom edges of the sling. Simply make a 1/4" hem on each side, being careful when you get to the part where your french seam is, you may have to adjust your machine for the thickness of the three layers of fabric there.

And that's it! You should now have a beautiful new over the shoulder baby holder a.k.a baby sling.

Extras:
My design for the Karma Baby Sling also includes a pocket lined in bias tape and a handy toy ring.

The pocket: If you are not an expert seamstress, I would recommend staying away from the bias tape that we use to line our pockets. It is sometimes difficult to work with. Instead, you can simply cut a square whatever size you want your pocket to be, hem the sides, and then sew it on. We put ours on over the french seam so that the pocket is right in the middle of the sling.

The toy ring:
We use cotton webbing and a d ring for our toy ring. Both of these items can be found at your local sewing shop.


original source: www.mykarmababy.com