Mei tai I made

My fabulous mei tai that I made for my “trucky bumpies”. He was starting to get too heavy for the white mesh Baby Bjorn, plus at 10 months, he is very heavy……

So after finding out that the Baby Bjorn sits the baby wrong on the crotch instead of the wide frog like correct position for proper hip development, I threw it out and got to sewing.

I have made two ring slings before an a wrap. But this was my first time sewing a mei tai.  I have a Ergo and Beco Gemini soft carrier and at first I was going to make a wrap conversion. However after two prototypes, one with wide straps and one with normal unpadded ones, I decided to make my mei tai sort of like a soft structured carrier. And its supper comfy and larger for him to grow in. The largeness also makes it great because he cant try to worm around and lend back when in backpack mode.

I had him on my back for two hours while he slept and I cleaned my kitchen, washed dishes and did the floors.

Details

The straps are extra long, maybe 70'” plus. Even though I am short, I wanted long straps because I like to do the Tibetan tie and Lexi twist. I had a Kozy carrier and it was too short for my little man and the straps only where able to wrap around me once. VEry hard to do a lexi twist. I bearly got it tied.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

The waist strap is padded as well as the arm straps. I also padded the head area for support and the entire piece was lined with stuffing around the edges. The important part was to make sure the head and legs are comfy. The extra pading makes for a better fit around the thighs so that the mei tai does not cut the skin. I plan on adding a pocket with a hood and a toy ring on the straps. I also will add elastic on the ends of the straps so that they are put away when not use. The only problem with longer straps is that it is annoying when not in use or trying to put on when you are not home wearing it.

So mostly I have worn this at home and only out when I know that my little will not be getting in and out a lot. For those types of situations I normally wear my Ergo.