The hybridish mei tai

Several months ago, I decided to try and make a mei tai for DH to use with DS.  Having seen like only one or two MT’s in real life, I took to the internet to get some inspiration.  I found several MT’s and SSC’s (soft-structured carriers) that had features I liked.  A mama from Australia makes an SSC called the Kanga XT which intrigued me because of the high, padded headrest and the fact that kiddos could easily put their arms out without putting strain on the shoulders.  Another carrier I liked was the OB-Alta, mostly I liked the giant hood that would block out light and such.

Armed with information, I set out to design a DIY MT that would have the features I liked from the above two carriers as well as some of my own thoughts.  I made a practice carrier, first, and tested that out for several weeks.  DH gave the thumbs up so I started working on “the real thing”.  The main difference here was in the fabric, I used twill for the straps and structural parts, and some left over fabric from DH’s kilt.  Of course, there were all sorts of dramas and snaffu’s along the way.  (It wouldn’t be one of my sewing projects if it was free of problems, now would it!!)  But, I managed to get the finishing touches done just in time for a big trip to Illinois.

I discovered, with chagrin, that the padded leg extensions that I added were too big for DS at that time, but they are just perfect now that he has grown a ton!  And now that we’ve used it for several months, we are liking it pretty well.

If I were to make another one, I would probably scrap the padded headrest idea.  Not only was it a pain to do, it made the hood too high, so it doesn’t actually work as well as I’d hoped.  I also would figure out a different way to attach the waistband to the carrier.  Again, the way I did it was a seriuos PITB!!

But overall, this carrier was a succes as it’s DH’s go-to carrier these days.  I guess that’s good, right?