Mama By Design

So, I changed the MBD just a wee bit…

There were problems to be solved:

From a user’s point of view: The darned thing was too big. Beautiful, yes, but babies became swallowed by the enormous body, never to be seen again. Regular large-bodied Mei Tais can be rolled up at the bottom, but of course the MBD has that fancy seat, so there’s nothing you can do. Also, the bottom 1/3 of the panel gets lost under the straps if it’s tied correctly. Always bugged me, that.

From a manufacturer’s point of view: Too many steps, too much topstitching, and that weird top corner that had to be pressed down and sewn through the strap and the bottom layer, and come out lined up and looking decent. Seamstresses ran screaming, it was not pretty.

From my own personal design point of view: I really wanted a dropped waistband. I like waist padding, some sort of hip support.

So, here’s what I did:
-Reduced the body size and shape. This prototype is 2 inches shorter than the original, that seems to be too short so I’m going to give back an inch.
-The panel is square instead of rectangular. Yes, it’s less panel, but you see what will happen is that the image will be set in the right place for people to actually see it, so that’s a good thing.
-Topstitching is reduced overall, each section (panel, body, seat, strap, strap, strap) has only one line. So are many fussy little details I won’t bore you with, but having to do with cutting and measuring and irritating stuff like that. Cuts production headaches and time way down.
-Contours! The padding is thinner but cut away, so the body is narrower at the bottom. The top is contoured, so it will be easier for those babies to get their arms out. The seat is more contoured too.
-Dropped waist band. I’ve been trying to make this work for a long time and finally seem to have a sewable solution. Yay!

So. This is the new look for MBD. From now on, I’m making them like this. They’ve turned into more of a Soft-Structured Seated Mei-Tai. (hey, it’s a new acronym. What the heck’s a SSSMT?? Lol.) I’m working on finding the perfect strap padding, I think I want something denser with a bit more body than what I’ve been using. And, of course, the seamstress problem. I really do need someone to help me sew these things.

BTW The “baby” in the picture is 2.5 and as tall as an average 3 yo, and her 7yo big sis took that picture while standing on the coffee table.

In January I was feeling a little stir crazy. I think the rain was getting to me or something. I wanted to play hooky from MBD and make some art quilts instead, so I compromised and offered a couple of custom panels on the vendor’s FSOT on www.thebabywearer.com. They were really fun to make. I LOVE brainstorming with people about their dream carriers. I love all of the thought they put into them, the reasons for choosing what they do.

Making customs is one of my favorite things about doing MBD. It is unfortunate that it isn’t really feasible for me to do it all of the time. Consider, it took nearly two months to get these three carriers together. Even if I had the actual carrier production shopped out, that’s a month and a half of work for three carriers. I don’t work full time, if I did I could probably do one or even two a week provided the client was prompt with the emails. Call it 5 hours for design, 3-5 more hours to cut and sew the panel. Compare that to an applique design that I offer as part of my regular line: design time is spread through however many I end up making; I create them as embroidery machine programs which can run while I’m working on other things, or while I’m hanging out with the kids doing homeschool projects, or in the middle of the night when all I can manage to be able to focus on is changing thread and trimming fabric. (I’m afraid to say what my calculations tell me is a fair price for custom panels, it comes out closer to $300!)

So, that’s why I have to say “I’m sorry, but No” when people ask me if I’ll take custom orders. There are so many things that I need to do right now to create this business, and I need to be able to do them with a more efficient production method than custom designs allow. From time to time, when I’m feeling especially creative, perhaps for a special Charity Event or just on a whim, I will offer to do one or two. This year’s Master Gardener’s Auction is coming up in April, I haven’t made up my mind about that one yet…Watch the vendor’s FSOT, I’ll post there.

Maybe I’ll even find some sewing help one of these days. After I’ve re-engineered the Seamstress’ Nightmare, I hope I can work out offering custom designs on a regular basis. Until then, I hope that the designs in my regular lines meet with people’s approval. I have some new ones in mind, they’ll be coming along in the next couple of months. Oh, and I haven’t forgotten that I promised a demonstration of my strap tying technique. I was hoping dh would give me a video camera for a holiday present, no such luck. Now I’m trying to borrow one. Anybody in Eugene have a video camera? Lol.