#lendinglibrarylove: Woven Wrap Blends and Brands

Cotton, linen, hemp… Didymos, Girasol, Natibaby…When it comes to woven wrap blends and brands the choices can be overwhelming. Maybe you are even asking yourself- “what IS a woven wrap?” Stay tuned as Babywearing International of Cleveland dives head first into the pool of woven wraps!!

So, what IS a woven wrap? As defined by Babywearing International “Wraps are the most traditional and simple of all carriers. They come in a variety of lengths and fabrics such as cotton, linen, wool, and other fabrics. Wraps can be used to carry an infant, toddler, or child in a variety of positions including front, hip, and back carries. Wraps are infinitely adjustable to meet the specific needs of the individual wearer. Learning to wrap may seem intimidating at first but can be mastered with practice. The beautiful fabrics used in many wraps make them an aesthetically pleasing style of baby carrier. Their lack of hardware makes them ideal for snuggling newborns but wraps are wonderful for babies and toddlers of any age.” When it comes to woven wraps-the possibilities are virtually endless. Many different carries can be accomplished based on the child’s development. And while we are going to be concentrating mostly on machine woven wraps-keep in mind that there are also handwoven wraps out there (and much like machine woven-many different fibers and aesthetics are available).

Source

Now that we know what a woven wrap IS-let’s talk about what they are made out of. Cotton, linen, hemp, and wool are fibers that can be found, as well as many others. Not only can a wrap be made of a single fiber type, blends of fiber types can be found too. Take a look at the infographic below for details on the individual fibers.

While there are many different fiber types and the choices may seem overwhelming, use the above infographic and the needs of the child and caregiver to help determine what best fits their needs!

We know what a woven wrap IS, we just learned about the different fibers, now let’s talk about different brands of woven wraps. We will concentrate on looking at some of the wrap brands that can be found in the Lending Library of BWI of CLE but there are SO MANY out there!! Look on the far right side of this page for “Our favorite places to shop for babycarriers” which links up many different places you can go to browse and purchase!

Woven Wrap Brands

Didymos: German company that was originated in 1972 they offer machine woven single fiber options (i.e. cotton), as well as fiber blends (i.e. cotton/hemp).

left: Didymos Day Owls-50% Cotton, 50% Hemp (Elyria Library)

right: Didymos  Indio Sunshine- 60% Organic Cotton, 40% Hemp (Fairview Park)

Girasol: 100% cotton wraps handwoven in Guatemala

left: Girasol Cosmic Rainbow- 100% Cotton (Solon)

right: Girasol Phoenix-100% Cotton (Wickliffe)

Natibaby: Machine woven wraps from Poland. They offer 100% cotton wraps, as well as fiber blends.

left: Natibaby Henna Flowers-30% Hemp, 70% Cotton (North Royalton)
right: Natibaby Cogs Princely (dyed)- 70% cotton, 30% tussah silk (Elyria)

While this list of woven wrap fibers and brands is not exhaustive it is a good starting point! Please remember that BWI of CLE is always here to answer any questions you have and we look forward to chatting with you in the future!

Would you like to learn more about woven wraps? Check out our Pinterest or join us at a monthly meeting! Want to see everything in our lending library? Check out our current inventory!!

Written by Nichole Hoven, the Financial Coordinator and a VBE with BWI of Cleveland.  She is mom to Lucas, wife to Ian, and full time engineer at a University.  She became interested in Babywearing while pregnant with her son and started out with a Boba stretch wrap, and an Ergo SSC.  Not being 100% sure on how to use the Ergo with a newborn led her to an internet search for a local Babywearing group. She found the Cleveland chapter and as they say, “the rest is history”. Her current favorite way to carry her son is using a woven wrap. She volunteers at the Elyria meeting and wherever else help is needed and her schedule permits.