I’ve heard of people making hammocks or swings with their woven wraps in the babywearing communities online, but there doesn’t seem to be much “authority” about how to do it the right way. I can’t find a tutorial for how to make a swing, but I’m planning on trying something out and posting if it works.(SOON. I’m getting “ingredients” for it today.)
But for now, this is what we’ll be doing!
All you have to do is smooth out your wrap so there are no twists in it, and tie it around your dining room table using a square knot. I’m sure most toddlers could climb in on their own. Anneliese is a bit hesitant about gross motor things, so she asked for help, but she had no trouble getting out when she wanted to. (She asked for help but I just told her, “Put your feet on the floor.” And she did it fine.)
Anneliese LOVED this! She called it her “Babar Hammock” because on the first page of the original Babar book, the elephant’s mother is rocking him in a hammock. I love that she made that connection to literature!
She also told me she was going to go “ninight” in it, and asked if I would nurse her in it. I told her I couldn’t nurse her in the hammock, and she was a little bit sad. It WOULD be comfy to just snuggle and nurse in a hammock though. She’s got the right idea!
More great resources for How to Make a Woven Babywearing Wrap Hammock
- Baby Carriers Downunder also has a variation for smaller kids who need a deeper pouch for their hammocks, tying a knot at each side before tying the center square knot. Great idea!
- BW of Peoria includes woven wrap hammocks in their post about how to break in your woven wrap. Their blog is full of really pretty pictures too!
- Sling hammocks are also mentioned in The Mommy Dialogues in their “break in your wrap” post. Check out their cute picture over there too!
- All Things Maverick also has some GREAT outdoor-wrap-hammock photos. So beautiful. If we had more trees, we could do that! They also have a How to Break in a Woven Wrap post which includes the hammock tip too.
- Leslie on Flicker has a really cute wrap hammock photo too. It looks like she set it up in a playpen somehow!
- You can see more woven wrap hammocks here on Slingmeet.
Hi! I'm Emily. I'm a Navy wife and stay at home mom of two beautiful children. I cook simple, delicious, grain-free recipes, do crafts, decorate my home on a budget, and keep a happy household. I tandem breastfeed, babywear, cloth diaper, practice elimination communication, homebirth, and co-sleep, but I'm not a hippie.
[...] a long piece of fabric, it can be used for other things, for example as a table hammock (check out this description on how to make one) or of course as a blanket, which we have done quite a few times [...]
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I know of a little girl who did this on her bunk bed and it killed her. She was doing it with her sister and her sister left the room and then it happened. She was like 10 or 12 at the time. Just a reminder to stay with little ones if you do this.
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Does this effect your wrap in any way?
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Hippie
Can you use a sheet for fun do you think? Or would that not be long enough?
I would not use a sheet. A woven wrap is meant to hold the weight of a child. A sheet is not.
Sheet isn’t as long as a wrap but would be plenty strong enough — my DIY Moby wrap is a twin sheet halved lengthwise and sewn end to end.
i’m a grandma, this would be a fun thing to do with the Gkids but how much fabric does this use? i know i can go to the fabric store to buy yardage but i would know how much. help.
If you’re doing a DIY version, you can get 5-6 yards of onsaburg fabric or another substantial woven fabric.
I have a Didymos Katja I need to pull back out and try this with! The kids would love it! Hopefully it’ll work for my older kids too! BTW, what wrap is this? It’s beautiful! I LOVE that yellow!
Thank you! I love it too. It’s an Ellevill Zara Sun wrap.
This is absolutely adorable. Makes me wish that I had kept my woven wrap after all. I just couldn’t get into wrapping and ended up selling it. (I’m a sling/meitai/ergo kind of girl.)
Aw, maybe you can pick up another sometime!
This is such a great idea, shame we don’t have a suitable table
Bummer! I’ve seen people tie it between crib slats before, like corner to corner in the crib… not sure where else you could tie it.
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totally blogging about this so awesome love your blog putting a button to it on my blog.
Thanks for linking to my blog and adding the button.
I am so sad I sold my woven wrap now. Do you think the gauze wraps you make would work as well? That is my only non-stretchy wrap left.
Mamatha tried with a gauze wrap and it sagged a lot… they aren’t really substantial so I wouldn’t have thought it would work well. But I bet just a length of (not super thin) linen or something would work, if you don’t have any woven wraps anymore! You could check the sales at fabric stores