Yay! We are back home in sunny Fort Lauderdale. (It wasn’t sunny AT ALL yesterday when we flew in though.) I am very glad to be home. We really missed DH! This fantastic 21st Century Dad was sooooooooooo happy to see Twilli!!! And Twilli was jumping up and down in her mei tai when she saw Daddy at the airport. It was too cute.

We had a great trip. Got to see a lot of people that we hadn’t seen for years. Got to introduce Twilli to a lot of people too! Sunday we enjoyed a church picnic at this beautiful park by a lake. (I’ll try to post photos soon. They are trapped inside the camera. Can’t find the memory card reader.) We thought it would be rained out. But the rain stopped JUST BEFORE the picnic started. The weather was cool and beautiful. And it was great to see Knoxville through new eyes. My architecture studies have informed me about a personality that Knoxville has that I had never been aware of before.

I realize that none of this really has anything to do with babywearing. Of course I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that babywearing SAVED OUR SANITY throughout the trip! Anytime Twilli was tired, disoriented or just OVER IT all, into the podegi she happily went! So many people made comments about how HAPPY she was to be “in there with Mommy”, or what a “great ride” it must be.

One lady at the airport, with baby, bags, stroller, etc. in tow saw me wearing Twilli in the podegi, with my backpack and diy OnBag strapped to me. (I absolutely HATE to have my hands full, and will almost always be happier as a pack horse than to be manually encumbered.) She said, “Wow, you really have your HANDS FULL!” I laughed and said, “Yeah. But not REALLY!” and raised 2 EMPTY hands while shrugging my shoulders. People are crazy. I saw so many people in the airport struggling with strollers or just holding their infant in arms, while trying to keep up with a toddler or other small child. Each time I wanted to point to Twilli and say, “There’s a BETTER WAY!” But I just kept my mouth closed, with a smile and a nod. To each his/her own.

And for those of you who are curious about the next Twilli Pie Podegis, check out TwilliPieDesign.com. There you will find photos of the design “schemes” that are queued.

One of my favorite blogs, that I’ve neglected lately, is THE ARTFUL PARENT. So I was so pleased when I checked back in and found an answer to something that I’ve been wanting to try for a while… Stencil art/fashion.

The Artful Parent has made some beautiful shirts, onesies, and bags with this technique that sounds quite simple and fun. She just launched an Etsy store with some of her creations here.

Apparently you find an image you would like to stencil, trace it onto freezer paper. Or you could just tape the freezer paper onto your printed image. (Make sure the “plain paper” side of the freezer paper is facing up.) Then use a sharp x-acto knife to cut out the design. Next you iron the freezer paper onto your shirt or fabric. Now iron another piece of plain freezer paper onto the backside of the fabric. Use fabric paint to fill in the design.

I understand that the fabric “cures” better if you let it stand out in the sun, or run a medium warm iron over the BACK of the design.

Maybe I’ll do some of these over the holiday weekend. Everyone have a wonderful and blessed Memorial Day!

Please LEAVE A COMMENT and let me know if you guys have ever done any stencil art, and if so, what did you use. Link to photos, too!

Ok. I am a day late for WEARS THE BABY WEDNESDAY. We’ve been sick and I’m still grossly behind in just about everything. Anyway, enough whining. We have new babywearing news and photos for you to see!

We are in the process of creating our own TWILLI PIE line of PODEGI (aka podeagi or podaegi) baby carriers. For anyone unfamiliar, the word is pronounced like this Poe-DAY-gee. The podegi is much simpler in form than a mei tai. It has even greater significance because it is traditionally a Korean carrier. Twilli’s grandparents are originally from South Korea. Unfortunately, we haven’t had a chance to meet them yet. But we felt it important to expose her to some of her Korean heritage early in life.

I made my first diy podegi a couple of weeks ago from a great tutorial that I found on TBW - TheBabyWearer.com. But I don’t like how short the body is and I wanted to create my own pattern/design. So I made it much longer and gave it a unique shape. For now, we’ll see some action shots of Twilli, in a ruck sack back carry, tibetan tied. This is just one side of the design. The other side has some other cool fabric. Stay tuned for more photos!

Even though she’s a bit crooked, Twilli is still quite content in her new podegi.

The smile shows our enjoyment! And look at those new teeth!

A pensive Twilli relaxing in her podegi with Mommy.

Have you ever seen or used a PODEGI baby carrier before? Please leave a comment and tell us what you think.

If it’s Wednesday, it must mean it’s time for WEARS THE BABY!

We have a couple of new additions in our stash. But first I want to share the overdue action photos of the BabyHawk Mei Tai that we got a few weeks ago. It has olive straps and a lovely Amy Butler print. (The reverse is another Amy Butler beauty as well!)

This was the first time we had tried a BACK CARRY. All of the tutorials I’ve seen about doing a back carry with a mei tai were a bit daunting because they all involve “tossing” and balancing your baby on your back

Twilli is a bit too squirmy for me to feel comfortable trying to balance her on my back. However, I decided to go the easy way and lay the carrier on the bed, put Twilli on it, and tie it on from there. It worked great! I’ll probably post a YouTube video for anyone else who wants to try the EASY BACK CARRY.

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And now for the GOOD STUFF!

We really enjoy designing, making and wearing these SCANDI MEI TAI baby carriers. For now, I will call them “TWILLI PIE Mei Tai” Baby Carriers, in order to differentiate them from any *commercially available mei tai. I often call Twilli “Twilli Pie” and Elliott thinks it’s so cute.

[*Note: I had originally hoped to introduce these MTs to the market. But the pattern I used is not licensed for commercial use. Sorry, these are for our personal use only. But I will be working on developing my own unique design.]

So here is the second MT we did - TWILLI PIE MT2. It has red corduroy straps (reinforced with a layer of denim, for added strength) and designer fabric that was actually recycled from a pair of Jones New York pants. The fabric is lovely, but I don’t think it should have EVER been on PANTS! It has a satin ribbon embellishment. The reverse side is red-orange satin and red-orange cotton solid.

I’m LOVING the cord straps! They help the carrier stay in place. It’s as if Twilli is attached with VELCRO! These straps are very long! I wanted to make them long to accommodate certain variations of a back carry. But they are a bit unweildly. I’m considering making them shorter. But I’ll probably experiment some more before I do that.

Next up we have the 3rd one TWILLI PIE MT3…

***If you are having trouble viewing the photo slideshow, you may look at the photos here. ***

I made this lovely blue one especially for my Mom, who is visiting from Tennessee. She will be leaving tomorrow. We’ve really enjoyed having her here. But she is missed by Dad and my 2 nephews. I hope they enjoy the mei tai!

I went looking for fabric that would suit her, and found this beautiful cobalt blue canvas. (Blue is Mom’s favorite color.) Then I hunted down some quarter flats that had a tropical or ocean feel and that matched the blue. I think it turned out very pretty!

Mom has shoulder issues and cannot easily tie things behind her back. So I made the waist strap extra long, allowing her to tie it in the front. I was afraid this might be too much fabric around the waist. But I gave it a “test drive” yesterday for several hours. It actually felt good for my back to have the added support.

I finally replaced the sleep hood on TWILLI PIE MT1. It looks so much better! AND it actually functions as a sleep hood now!

So I’ve included some more photos of it, with action shots! (I can’t resist the opportunity to show off the Twilli!) She’s such a cooperative model!

Ok. That’s all for this week. I’m already working on the next one. So stay tuned!

Please leave a comment and let us know what you think of my TWILLI PIE Mei Tai carriers!

I’ve been wearing my new fluffy Scandi-style MEI TAI for almost a week now and I really love it! There are a few edits I need to make, like a totally new sleep hood and the little loops for the hood to connect/tie onto. (I actually don’t know what I was thinking on this sleep hood! lol) And I’d like to have a utility loop on the belt, probably.

But in terms of comfort, I’m VERY happy! So without further adieu…

I haven’t posted for a couple of days. This is mostly because I needed to take a hiatus from the glaring screen, do a mild internet detox, and work on my latest and greatest sewing project.

I am not a super crafty type. But I have done a lot of basic stuff with the sewing machine like pillows, drapes, pant hems, etc. But I have been recently bitten by the MEI TAI bug, which has been fueled by photos and talk of the legendary Scandi (Scandinavian) Mei Tai.

These things are well made, beautiful, stylish AND comfortable. But they are very pricey and hard to find. IF you could buy them from the Scandi WAHMs, they would cost about $200+ plus international shipping. But, most of these WAHMs will not export to the sue-happy USA. This is mostly because their insurance will drop them if the send outside of their region. However, a small number of the beauties make it Stateside anyway.

The esteemed Scandi can sometimes be stalked FSOT (for sale or trade) on TBW - TheBabyWearer.com. By the way, TBW is one of the best places to buy or trade a used sling. It also has EXCELLENT instructions on how to use your baby carrier, of any type.

At this time, I cannot buy one of the “real” Scandi MTs. So I decided to try my hand at sewing my own. This is my very first time sewing a baby carrier. But before you start to worry, realize that I am not doing this blindly. I am using a GREAT tutorial from a SAHM who has made some AMAZINGLY beautiful baby carriers. All of the materials, measurements, and steps are thoroughly outlined.

It is pretty complicated to get all of the pieces together nicely. And sewing through the strap padding is something of a challenge. But I am making nice progress. I will post photos as soon as it is complete. [UPDATE 3/12/08 - View PHOTOS of my DIY Scandi Mei Tai here!]

Have any of you made your own baby carrier? If so, please leave a comment with a link to photos.