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Free Baby Sling Pattern
Make your own baby sling!
It
is so easy to sew a 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. Click here to learn why wearing your baby in a sling is one of the best things you can do as a parent. Please support a mom-owned business and tell all your friends about us!
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.
Baby Sling 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.
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| 3. Fold fabric in half lengthwise, then fold up so that all four open corners are to the right. |  |
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| 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.
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| 5. Unfold fabric widthwise and sew the two ends together along the curve that you just cut.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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And that's it! You should now have a beautiful new baby sling.
To learn how to use your new sling and to see all the carrying positions, go to our instruction page.
To see more photos of people wearing a baby slings, go to our photos page.
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Extras:
My design for the Karma Baby Sling also includes a pocket lined in bias tape and a handy toy ring.
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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.
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