I have been very privileged to have one of the very first testers from Baie Slings, a new and Yorkshire based wrap-making business, in ring sling form. They sent me an emerald and ecru 100% combed cotton tester in the Trowen pattern (celtic knots), with gathered shoulder and gold rings, in a cream canvas bag. It’s beautiful – vibrant and very striking.
The fabric is very, very soft straight from the loom, and glowing in colours. The sewing is careful, with five rows of stitching on the shoulder, so neat and well turned over that the ring sling is completely reversible. The hems are secure and well finished, and have a feature stripe along each edge, which I like. The rings are solid and I can see no weld join, so look to be high quality.
The ecru cotton (the warp) is creamy in colour and in texture as well, silky smooth to the touch right from new. This means that the rails (the ecru side in my version is folded over into the hem) have a nice glide through the rings so it is easy to adjust as a ring sling. The floats are quite long, and I have already found a small pull after two days of light use, however, it should be easy to fix.
The emerald cotton is also soft, but being the weft thread, the texture is less obvious. The pattern is grippy, which is excellent as the sling holds in place once the fabric has been adjusted through the rings. Overall, it feels very cushy, with a lovely diagonal stretch and even some elasticity/bounce, plus a tiny little bit of horizontal and vertical stretch (with no elasticity in this direction). It is very comfortable to wear and my toddler was happy to snuggle down cosily and there was no digging on my shoulder.
It will be interesting to see how this fares as a wrap, with the slight stretch and elastic nature of the weave. The smoothness of the ecru cotton should make it easy to wrap with, while the grippiness of the pattern will hopefully hold the passes in place. I would expect that I’d need to wrap heavy children quite tightly initially, to allow for the slight stretch, but the cush on the shoulders should make it very comfortable, once well wrapped. This would be a perfect woven wrap for babies as it is so soft and comfortable from new, no breaking in required!
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