Daphne’s hair began growing quickly around her 2nd birthday. This summer, it was getting a little out of control. It was hard to brush, t was always in her face, and she would never let me comb it. She loved when I put her hair in a “hopey tail”, but it took a lot of work, and she usually wanted it taken out again within a few minutes. I came up with the idea of making some cute hair clips for her so that she would be able to wear her hair up and still take it down without problems. I found a cool tutorial online that involved glueing ribbon to alligator clips. These are the results that I got.

This is the whole set I made.  I know, I went a little nuts, but it was fun, and Daphne helped me with most of them.

A nice little pile.

These are all the ones together that are not shaped into flowers.

Nice little star accent.

This is the underside of them.  They can be worn with either side up.

Sweet little bows.

I made these flower ones as well.  They turned out really cute, and they instantly dress up any outfit.

Of course on my baby sewing kick I managed to get a few pouch slings sewn for fun.  As I said before, I greatly lacked variety in slings with Daphne.  Though a mama doesn’t need every kind of sling known to man, it is nice to have a vareity to try and to string about all the places you go so that you are never left without.

I have never tried using a pouch sling before, so I am excited to see how it goes.  My friend Rebecca has a really lovely one that her 8 week old baby is very happy to sleep in.  I am hoping that this baby will like the slings I made.  It turns out that it is incredibly simple to make a pouch sling, so if you are in need or know someone who is in need, feel free to give it a try.

I made a brown sling and a khaki sling.  Didn’t I mention that I’ve been feeling the brown color lately.  Daphne was happy to model for me.

And of course she loves being in the sling with daddy.

This is the beige sling.  Of course, it got drooled on shortly before the photo was taken!

Of course once I had made a sling for myself, Daphne needed one to carry her baby around in.  I was able to use some scrap fabric to whip one up for her easily.

There are some excellent resources to make the slings.  I would post a tutorial, but the truth is that I did not do anything original, so I will just direct you to what I did do.

The woman who runs this site has spent a lot of time writing up information to help mamas make slings for their babies.  The information on how to make a pouch sling is particularly helpful.

However, the best thing you can do is watch the following video.  It really helped me a lot to get the sling put together simply without any confusion.  I thank the woman who made it deeply.  Go for it.  Make some for yourself or someone you know.

I’ve been into doing extra preparation for emergency situations lately.  I’m not worried about anything happening, it must just be a part of nesting or crazy cleaning or something.

I picked up a flier recently that was interesting to me that I thought I might pass along.

You can help emergency responders a lot by adding a contact to your phone called ICE.  It stands for In Case of Emergency.  You create a new contact with ICE as the name and then list the number of who would need to be contacted in an emergency.  If there were to be a car accident or a fire or something, the emergency responders can grab the phone and call that person to contact them and let them know what happened.  I think it is brilliant.  I put several ICE contacts in my phone labelled ICE 1, ICE2, ICE3 so that there are several options in case the first person couldn’t be contacted.

I also did this for Jared’s phone as well.  Just another simple thing that can greatly help if it ever needs to be used.  Consider doing it today for your family.

It is obvious that I am making almost everything I can imaginably manage to make for this baby.  It is not that I feel that I need a lot of things, but anything that I think that I do need is easily made with a bit of research and some talent and persistence.

One of my favorite things with Daphne was putting her in a sling.  It helped me keep her close and out of trouble.  I could nurse her in the sling.  It was easy to carry her around a store without having to lug around a heavy and awkward car seat. I was also able to get things done when I put her in the sling.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have a lot of funds available to buy and try every different carrier, so I had one or two that I used all the time.  The thing about slings is that you can never really have too many.  Babies spit up on them and they can get left places.  They also are easily forgotten.  I was constantly forgetting to bring the sling with me necessitating that I do without.

I did a lot of reserach over the past few months and discovered that it is incredibly easy to make slings.  They cost very little to make when all you are buying is fabric.  I am becoming a more and more accomplished sewer all the time so I had little difficulty sitting down and figuring out how to put slings together.  I am thankful for that skill.

I decided to make two different ring slings out of linen fabric.  Linen is strong and soft and supportive, and makes a lovely sling.  It is, unfortunately, one of the more expensive fabrics, but it was totally worth it.  I have been buying a lot of brown fabrics for this baby (and for Daphne and myself for that matter) lately.  Because you only need half of the witdth of yardage to make a sling, a cut of fabric will give you two slings, which is a lovely bonus.  You can always sell the extra one, leave it in the car or give it away as a baby shower gift.  I opten to make two–one for home and one for the car.

These slings are ring slings, for obvious reasons.  They are great for running into the store quickly or for walking a baby around during a long walk.  They are easy to get a baby into and out of, and they adjust really easily.  They will hold anything from a newborn to a 35 pound toddler if necessary.  I have carried Daphne in them a few times, and she is 28 pounds now.

It must be noted if you are going to make ring slings that you get your rings from somewhere that sells rings specifically for slings.  Many of the rings you can get at fabric stores are for purses and are not meant to carry the weight of a baby.  They can bend or break making it very dangerous for your baby.  www.slingrings.com has rings that are very inexpensive.  There are lots of colors, and the shipping is very affordable.

This is the first sling I made.  I put a brocade tail on the end for decoration and to ensure that the sling was long enough.  I did not anticipate that it would be almost too long, but I find the extra tail length to be stylish and not bothersome at all.  You can also throw it over the other shoulder when the baby is sleeping.

I made this second sling with the other half of the fabric from the first sling.  It also has a nice brocade tail that I like.  It is also long, but I really don’t mind.  I now have a sling for the car and a sling for the home.

After making the above two slings, I got inspiried.  I decided that I was going to make a sling out of a special fabric called solarveil.  It is a fabric that has been discontinued, so it was hard to find.  Essentially, it blocks out 70% of the UV rays from the sun.  It can also get wet and dry very quickly.  It is a great sling for the beach or for times when it is very sunny.  Additionally, people use the fabric for slings for the pool or the shower.  It is possible to put a baby in the sling and go into the swimming pool or take a shower when no one else is around to handle the baby for you.  I am excited to use the sling.  I was happy to get a hold of some of the fabric.  I sold half of it to another mama that was wanting to make a sling for the same purposes.

You should be inspired to make your own sling if you are in need of one. I spent less on these three slings than I would have if I had bought one retail from a store.  They are just as lovely, and though some of the stitching might be sligthly crooked in some places, they will work wonderfuly.

There are lots of resources if you want to make your own slings.

Maya Slings are really popular ring slings, but they have a tutorial on their website to make your own sling if you desire.

I actually was interested in a different style sling. The slings I made are pleated on the shoulder. I like the look a lot more. I got the tutorial from a fellow blogger that I read. It is a lovely tutorial. I would recommend you try it. It is the one I decided on after a LOT of research.

There is tons of information and other research and patterns for free here.

I have also found the Sling Sewing Yahoo Group to be incredibly helpful in any questions that I had.

Hopefully those resources will help you if you wanted to make a sling of your own. Otherwise, you can just admire my own handwork (that I am very proud of).

I’ll leave you with an action shot of Daphne and I putting a sling on that I really like.

And a photo of my little girl wearing a sling just like mama.

I am now a believer that it is possible to make money doing almost anything. People are so creative in life, and I like that in this free market society that our civilization has expanded to such an extent that we are able to have people that can do some truly random thing.

I ran into this website the other day. I only wish that I had though of this before I had my daughter recently. For my maternity and newborn clients out there–consider it if you are in a position to do so. I think it is creative and simply fascinating.

http://www.itsa-belly.com/index.html