Finished Project #10: The Meela Baby Carrier

That's right, the 10th finished project of the year! I dubbed this "The Meela", after being introduced to this carrier by my cousin Tracy, who made a handful of these carriers for her 7 month old daughter. While visiting Vancouver a few weekends ago I had perused one of her carriers and was quite surprised at how comfy it was...even after wearing it for at least 4 hours while shopping at Metrotown Mall!! I'm just sad that I wasn't introduced to this sooner...before I had bought the Ergo carrier. Don't get me wrong, I love the Ergo, but I could have saved some cashola by making my own carriers.

The front.
Sorry it's bad shot, Brett was trying to balance himself on the beer/BBQ sauce fridge* while trying to take this photo!

This carrier is super easy and super fast to sew up. Including cutting the fabric, this took about 45 minutes to make! I kid you not!! It would have taken half an hour if I wasn't a freakin' perfectionist in my stitching. Even though no one would notice if my topstitching was uneven or not...except for me!

The back.
This carrier is über comfy because of the extra wide shoulder straps.

My cousin was introduced to this carrier by a Japanese friend, who had given her a blurry printout of instructions that was written in Japanese. Luckily the instructions had a few diagrams and I was able to come up with my own so-called pattern and method of how to sew this bad boy. I say pattern very loosely here cause all it really is 2 long, rectangular pieces of fabric. I added the triangular piece to help support my wee one's back, in case he fell asleep. I'm thinking of making this carrier again, only this time using a thicker cotton. I got this fabric at Fabricland solely because I do not have anything "boyish" in my stash and had to quickly pick up some fabric that was. I thought the bicycle print was fitting for what I was looking for. Unfortunately the fabric itself is very thin, so I'm a bit weary of using this carrier for an extended amount of time. I could be overly paranoid, suffering from new parent syndrome, or it could be from working as a technical designer for a kids' clothing company in the past that is making me suspicious and alert whenever it comes to anything involving my wee one. I think to put my mind at ease I'm going to avoid using any fabric from Fabricland in the future when it comes to making anything involving excessive wear and tear.

Anyways, overall I'm happy that this turned out the way I wanted it to. I know I'm going to be making a few more of these in the upcoming weeks! Thanks Tracy!

*These photos were taken on our kitchen patio, which is also Brett's sanctuary. And by sanctuary I mean it is where the BBQ is and where Brett cooks his "masterpieces". More on that later. But not only does the patio house the BBQ, it also houses a little fridge that contains all the beer and several bottles of various BBQ sauces. I roll my eyes at this.