Motherhood: Babywearing Tester

I have been babywearing for a while (since Apr 2014). Recently, I have been offered the opportunity to be one of the testers for a ring sling and a woven wrap =)

Aloha & Light Silk Hemp blend ring sling is weaved, hand dyed and hand painted by Janel from Hawaii. Jars and Fluff [1][2], a local online shop, is our local vendor who partnered with Janel to bring in these vibrantly coloured ring slings. My review of Aloha & Light can be found on Jars of Fluff Facebook page[3].

In brief, the material is supportive, thin and airy. Pretty suitable for local weather. The colours are really loud, which I feel may only appeal to those who like very loud colours. Personally, this ring sling needs to "travel" through more hands. By that, I feel that it needs to be more broken in (worn, washed and ironed more times). The one thing about it that disturbed me quite a bit was that its colour runs when washed.

As for the woven wrap, I must say that I felt really honoured to be its tester. The main reason behind my sense of pride is because it is the first machine woven wrap produced by our local company CareRing Sling[3][4] =D I could hardly contained my excitement when I saw that one of the lines on the wrap label read "Singapore"!!! My review of Pearly Blossom Size 5 woven wrap can be found on CareRing Sling business page and Facebook page[5].

Though the wrap was not the usual length which I prefer, I can hardly find any flaws with it (apart from the fact that I am not a very pink/peach colour girl).

Disclaimer: I was given the chance to babywear with the said products for a week each. All opinions are my own. No gift or monetary compensation were received.

Coincidentally, the owner for both Jars of Fluff and CareRing Sling are certified babywearing consultants. From what I know, Nur Afifah of CareRing Sling happens to be Janna's mentor. Oh, Janna is the owner of Jars of Fluff~

I find the experience as a tester to be pretty interesting and very pleasant for the following reasons:

1. get to try out many pretty wraps and ring slings made of different fibres (cotton, linen, silk, etc.)

2. get to polish my selfie aka hand-pho(ne)tography skill =p

3. get to brush up my linguistic/writing skill~

4. get to polish my wrapping-QW-up skill *haha*

5. the support provided by the vendors are excellent - clear guidelines on what to write are provided, courier service to the next tester are provided for, the vendors are very responsive to messages...

blah blah blah~

The cons about being a tester is I don't get to keep the wrap if I fall in love with it~ *Sigh*

I hope to have more of such opportunities to try all the wraps =D Okay, that might be too ambitious =P I guess I will just have to settle for try as many wraps as I can while QW still let me babywear her~

PS: Actually, I have been given the opportunity to test another wrap soon ;) *excited squeal* *Sshh~*

References:

1. Jars of FLuff

2. Facebook - Jars of Fluff

3. Facebook - Review of Aloha & Light Silk Hemp Ring Sling

4. CareRing Sling

5. Facebook - CareRing Sling

6. CareRing Sling - Review of Pearly Blossom

Motherhood: May 2015 Stash Shot

10 May is around the corner, 2nd Sunday of May. That means, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all mummies out there!!!

Now, for a quickie on my current stash shot:

Left to right, top to bottom (in chronological order):
FibrEssence Wovens[1] Shell Medley, Fidella[2] Persian Paisley Smoke, Little Frog[3] Sunny Agate II,
Didymos[4] Indio Aurora RS, Oscha[5] Tian Ma Clove RS, Yaro[6] Turtle Light-Blue

Anticlockwise direction:
Fidella Persian Paisley Smoke, Yaro Turtle Light-Blue, FibrEssence Wovens Shell Medley,
Little Frog Sunny Agate II, Oscha Tian Ma Clove RS, Didymos Indio Aurora RS

Top to bottom:
Oscha Tian Ma Clove RS, FibrEssence Wovens Shell Medley, Didymos Indio Aurora RS,
Yaro Turtle Light-Blue, Fidella Persian Paisley Smoke, Little Frog Sunny Agate II

The latest addition to the stash is Fidella. As promised in "Motherhood: My 1st Handwoven Baby Wrap". I will now share how it joined the stash... 

It is going to be quite a long "story"... So, you might want to grab yourself a cuppa and sit comfortably.

Now, let's start the "story" proper. Once upon the time, somewhere in Singapore, I was blessed with a Moms In Mind (MIM) RS and 2 DIY pouch slings by a close friend. Unfortunately, MIM's material was not grippy enough, too slippery in fact, and required countless retightening. It caused me to dislike RS at that point in time.

As for the pouch sling, I could never get the hang of it. It just does not tighten up properly for me to be hands-off. My bad. My pregnant brain was not able to absorb my friend's teaching on how to use the pouch sling. It made me hate babywearing. Till now, they are still sitting around somewhere in my wardrobe.

Back then, I was using ErgoBaby[7] most of the time if I ever babywear. But, Ergo is very bulky to bring out. It is so not compact that I can't stuff it into my diaper bag! Too warm to be strapped in it because it won't fit my diaper bag :( So totally not motivated to use it...

Then one day, I just did a random search in Facebook on babywearing. That was how I found and requested to join the Singapore Babywearing Group[8]. From then on, the group rekindled my love for babywearing after being redirected to the tutorials from Wrap You in Love[9].

I took the plunge and bought my first woven wrap, Yaro Light-Blue Turtle size 5 after reading positive reviews from her (and of course because Yaro was said to be more affordable). It came after 2 weeks of travelling from Europe.

Softness was what still attracted me to using Yaro at home. Strictly at home. As mentioned in "Motherhood: Personal Opinions of My Humble Carrier Collection - Apr 2015 Stash Shot", I am an OCD who cannot stand the idea of Yaro's overwhelming length sweeping the floor when I am out. Not very in love with woven wrap at that point in time still...

Next, I got Oscha Tian Ma Clove to commemorate QW's birth (she is born in the year of horse). Not exactly soft out of the box and a bit on the warmer side because of the hemp. Luckily, it was quite easy to break in. It became buttery soft and silky smooth pretty soon after a few wears. And so, that was the start of my falling in love with woven RS.

Following Oscha to join the stash was Didymos Indio Aurora. Its beauty caught my attention and Jars of Fluff[10] was organising a pre-ordering session in the babywearing group. Since I preferred RS at that point in time and it is a limited edition print, I got it so that I have a RS to interchange with whenever Oscha is being washed.

So, I was pretty convinced that I will be a RS girl all-the-way... That remained true until someone in the babywearing group asked about ways to keep their wraps so as to pass it on to their children. You know, like a hands-me-down kind of thing?

Legacy wrap... I like the sound of that. I wanted Tian Ma to be it. That was why I bought it in the first place. Hence, I followed that thread closely. Sadly, I found out that RS would not make good legacy wrap because the seams might be compromised over time. Woven wrap, on the other hand, had the possibility of being a legacy wrap. It was mentioned in the thread that there are some 20 year-old Didy in circulation still!

Being determined to share the benefits of babywearing with QW in future, I thought of trying out a shorty (size 1 to 3). Standing at 1.58m tall, size 3 (usually 3.2m) would probably be my maximum limit. How did I come up with this conclusion? Because I can imagine myself folding the wrap in half and managing 1.6m long of wrap in some sense by sticking it in between my legs, placing it on a chair or in my pocket as I set up the carry. I can imagine it being totally off-the-floor the whole time :)

So, I decided to give a shorty woven wrap a chance. This round, I had a better idea what I was looking for. I wanted a wrap that is toddler worthy (meaning can carry up to toddlerhood or even pre-school stage). A wrap that is easy to differentiate top from bottom rail (because I could not tell them apart with Yaro having the same colour throughout).

With those conditions, I narrowed down to Little Frog Agate. A shorty was indeed the right move. I fell deeply in love with babywearing all over again. Finally! So, it has been decided. My sweet spot is size 3. Period.

Now, I did mention before that 240 gsm Little Frog was still a bit warm, didn't I? Hence, I got attracted and bought Heartiness[11] Entho Blue which is 50% cotton and 50% linen. 2 main reasons for this purchase: 1. Linen = more cooling as many attest to; 2. It was selling at an affordable price which included shipping.

While waiting for Entho Blue, FibrEssence Wovens went on SALES!!! Massive 45% discount!!! I was already drooling over the Shell Medley and always wanted to try a handwoven. So so crazy over it that I would check FibrEssence Wovens facebook page everyday just to see if it was still around. So, the sales really was not helping me from falling into the rabbit hole!!! And of course you know what happened after that....

Now, finally we reach Fidella. Why Fidella? One of the reasons was SALES AGAIN!!! The babywearing group shared a discount code for it. HAHAHA, so totally not helping at all!!! Next reason, it comes with a bag =D

Bag of the same print =D

And the next reason, the top rail and bottom rail can be differentiated! What they did was to hem it in different direction (if you can picture what I meant). Such a genius!

Fidella on most right:
Top rail darker colour, bottom rail lighter

And I shall stop sharing the other reasons =P But, you get the idea... I think... hope...?

Well~ at least I am buying something that I would be using, using my own money, and have a chance of passing it on as a legacy. Justified. *Self assuring cum comforting mode on* *Hee hee*

Yupz, so now, I am waiting for Entho Blue to crawl here from USSR or Russia.

*Drumming my fingers impatiently*

References:

1. Facebook - FibrEssence Wovens
2. Fidella
3. Little Frog
4. Didymos
5. Oscha Slings
6. Slingo Mama - Yaro
7. ErgoBaby
8. Facebook - Babywearing Singapore (Closed Group)
9. Wrap You in Love
10. Jars of Fluff
11. Facebook - Heartines

Motherhood: My 1st Handwoven Baby Wrap

As mentioned in "Motherhood: Personal Opinions of My Humble Carrier Collection - Apr 2015 Stash Shot", I was waiting for my 1st handwoven from Fibressence Wovens[1]. Maria, the weaver, is located in Canada. Hence, Shell Medley (the wrap's name) took almost 2 weeks (sent on 16 Apr, received on 28 Apr) for it to travel here.

Shell Medley brown weft :)

About the weaver, Maria is very responsive and patient with me when I sent her private messages on Facebook prior to my purchase. I like it that she kept me updated once she posted Shell Medley out, and gave me the reference number so that I can have fun tracking it. After I received Shell Medley, Maria remained responsive and patient as I continue to bombard her with further questions. Really glad to have such nice weaver be the one who wove my 1st handwoven wrap :)

What is the first main difference between machine wovens and handwovens that struck me? I am not an expert in this field still, but superficially, the tail caught my attention. Machine wovens usually have tapered (slanted) tails, while handwovens are commonly blunt (straight) tails. Having said that, I did come across some handwovens with tapered tails.

From left to right:
Tapered tails on Fidella and Little Frog;
Blunt tails on FibrEssence Wovens

Another difference is the middle marker (MM). Though there are some weavers who sew tags with their company logo as MM just as machine wovens, MM of handwovens can be quite varied: tactile/blessing thread, weft change, pinstripes, etc. Ok, enough of the geekery and back to Shell Medley. The MM on Shell Medley is tactile thread.

Blue tactile thread

Some like it because it is subtle (like in this case). Others hate it because it can be hard to find. As for me, since many of the carries I like are off-centre, I quite like this MM because the colour really makes it pops.

Weighing at around 265 gsm, Shell Medley can be a bit warm to wear outdoor, especially if Mr. Sun is taking a stroll. The first time I worn it was when we brought QW to Marina Bay Sands (MBS) to watch her first musical, Beauty and the Beast. With the air-con blasting, Shell Medley is the perfect companion to be with. I guess this means that Shell Medley is following us to our upcoming New Zealand trip then ;)

Visibly fluffier (because of 265gsm?)

Shell Medley in poppins hip carry

In fact, I think QW was too comfortable in it that she was sleeping most of the time! Definitely loaded with sleepy dust!

Length wise, it is comparable to Little Frog. Exactly the kind of width I like :)

Oh ya, that's Fidella[2] on the right most. I will write on that in my next post "Motherhood: May 2015 Stash Shot". And ops, I did mention that I was waiting for Shell Medley and Heartiness[3] Entho Blue in "Motherhood: Personal Opinions of My Humble Carrier Collection - Apr 2015 Stash Shot". Errr... Entho Blue is not here yet. I will tell you more about why Fidella joined the stash in that next post too...

Back to Shell Medley again. It is a plain weave which I have been wanting to try after having tried jacquard loose weave (Yaro[4], Oscha[5] and Didymos[6]) and broken twill (Little Frog[7]). Personally, I like it though you would probably think that it does not look fanciful or impressive. I like that it is raw and natural enough for me to be able to track every wrap and weft. Really love how the horizontal pinstripes accentuate the deep seat created for QW.

As you can read, I am really loving Shell Medley at the moment. It has the right amount of grip, such that I do not need to keep readjusting. Very supportive even with single pass. Unlike little frog which gave me a shock for being stiff out of the box, Shell Medley is oh-so-soft and the most "blankety" among my collection :)

"Are there any cons?"  I hear you ask. Come to think of it, the selvedges are almost straight is the main cons I can think of. Other than that, probably just the fact that I cannot wrap as often as I would love to since the weather is usually hot and humid.

After trying plain weave, I wonder how heart, twill (undulating, straight, etc.), diamond, pebble weaves would feel... Hmm...

References:

1. Facebook - FibrEssence Wovens
2. Fidella
3. Facebook - Heartines
4. Slingo Mama - Yaro
5. Oscha Slings
6. Didymos
7. Little Frog