Project: Mei Tai

We've needed a different baby carrier for a while. The Moby wrap is a pain in the ass to put on/take off in public (I'm OCD about having to drag the ends on the ground) and it is made out of a jersey-knit material, so it stretches as you wear it and then the entire fit is thrown off. The Baby Bjorn is Keith's favorite baby wearing device, but it is supposedly bad for hip development because of the way it holds the hanging baby from the crotch. Alas.

My solution to this dilemma? The often crafted, never complained about mei tai! I remember seeing mei tais on Craftster years and years ago, and noted that if I ever produced spawn that a mei tai would probably be the baby-carting way to go if I was uninterested in using a stroller.

Now cue this gem: the Scandi baby carrier tutorial. Sweeeeet.

I went through my fabric stash and found many suitable bottom-weight and decorative fabrics perfect for this project. My fabric choices for my first mei tai are these:



The brown and green print is a canvas that I found on clearance at Jo-Ann's many years ago, and the umbrella fabric is just a quilting cotton, likely from Jo-Ann's as well. Fantastic!

Fabrics are pressed and ready to go!

The next challenge was the sewing machine. I hadn't even touched the poor thing in more than a year. Knowing that the last time I cleaned around the bobbin case was too long ago I decided to go in for some maintenance. Good thing I did, because I cleared an entire dust bunny dynasty out from the bottom of the machine. Gross!

Tomorrow I'm going to mock up some pattern pieces from broadcloth and hopefully cut all of my pieces.

Baby carrier freedom, here I come!