As part of our commitment to supporting sling libraries, we have been planning a teaching wrap for a while now. As plans for this has been on for close to a year, we almost abandoned this project as we just couldn't conclude on the design that will give us a clear differentiated rails that we really dreamt of. So a discussion about our new FOL wraps with Ali then shifted into the idea of teaching wrap and her tenacity for a high quality teaching wrap rekindled the desire in our hears to create a really luxurious teaching wrap. We don't feel that teaching wraps have to be all low quality because they are loaned out for a small fee. So we have invested our resources into procuring enough high quality yarns that can weave many teaching wraps for UK libraries and we have also secured a modern loom that is dedicated to specifically weaving our woven wraps. This mean that you can be rest assured that our weaving will be more consistent and superior in quality. At this stage, we have only woven 3 tester teaching wraps so the canvas is quite blank as we will be weaving the final teaching wraps based on the feedback we receive from the UK sling librarians. We have had our midnight rainbow and FOL wraps tested by groups in Romania, France, Hungary, Czech Republic, Sweden, Italy, Australia and the US. So we are going to focus on the UK sling libraries for now for the ease of coordinating the travelling of the tester teaching wraps. Our next stop is the US babywearing groups as we've had many inquiries from many groups there. Features of our current tester teaching wrap Woolen weave structure so they are really super-soft They don't need any breaking in at all and this is all down to their luxurious yarns, style of weaving and extra finishing They are not too wide nor too narrow, so easy to wrap with Customized with our Joy&Joe text woven into one side if its rails We will be offering only one size (large) so that new babywearers learning to wrap with it won't have to worry about variety of sizes. We feel that the large size is a reasonable base size for most body sizes. However, we can produce custom sizes on request. They are not prone to pulls as we specifically developed this new weave for our teaching wraps Woven to simulate the cushiness of wool yet they are composed of 100% cotton yarns so easy to wash As a double weave, the reverse of the wrap adds another character to the wraps as each faces takes on the weft colour of the stripes on the right sides. However, both sides are completely wearable The design is quite simplistic yet bright, playful and fun. Kids will love this too! Our teaching wrap also has wide stripes which runs vertically through the entire wrap with alternating colours This makes it easy for parents to learn new carries with our new teaching wrap. Please note that any of these features can be tweaked or improved in our final weaving run for our teaching wraps which is why your feedback is very vital to us in this process. The Plan Currently, our two teaching wrap testers will be travelling from one library to another and you can find the route of this travel in a document compiled by Ali in the J&J library tester tour facebook group. The travelling has been kindly kick-started by Ali of Cariad babywearing who has been testing the happy faces for a while now and it's great to see that it's been put to good use so far. The long term plan is to offer our teaching wraps to sling libraries at an affordable rate of £60 (could be more or less) although the value of the wrap is actually triple that. Libraries will not be able to sell this wrap on but they get a refund of their £60 whenever they return the wrap in good condition so that the wrap can be passed over to enable another library. The final design will be specific for sling libraries so that it will be easy to trace it on the second hand market if anybody sells it against the guidelines, as we want to make it purely a teaching wrap and not for profit. Many thanks to the lovely Ali C. of Cariad Babywearing for these beautiful seaside action photos of our new teaching wrap (http://cariadbabywearing.com/)
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May 2023
AuthorHello, my name is Bisi, babywearing consultant (SoB CIC), mother to two cheeky & very special kids (Joy and Joseph). Our 3rd baby has been christened Joy&Joe baby wrap slings! and we loveeee babywearing :) |