I’ve been trying to make my own faux Moby Wrap for the past couple of weeks. Some of my efforts have been rather disastrous, but I’m slowly getting a bit better.
Trial and error in sewing is less stressful when you’ve got an entire fabric store in your back yard. Hoorah for the remnant shelf and my husband’s procrastination when it comes to listing that stuff for sale.
My most recent wrap is made of hemp jersey, and it’s a little heavier/warmer than the one I made of orange baby rib knit (no picture of that one yet, sorry).
All my attempts (even the ugly ones) have resulted in a really comfy baby carrier. The kid likes it, it feels good on my back, and I can get some stuff done when he’s insisting on being held all the time. I’ve gotten requests for how to make one, so here you go:
Real Moby Wraps are almost 6 yards long, I’ve never seen one, but I found the dimensions posted on an online forum. Apparently real Mobys are 21″ wide at the middle, and taper down to just 4″ wide at the ends where you tie the knot under the baby’s legs. I made my hemp Moby like that, but my orange Moby is easier to manage and I made that one narrower. The orange one is just 18″ wide at the middle. Making the wrap narrower enables you to get 3 wraps out of one 6 yard piece. More bang for your buck.
So. Here’s what I recommend:
Fold your 6 yard length of cotton jersey 60″ wide fabric in half matching selvages (the ends of the fabric NOT cut by scissors).
Smooth out any lumps and bumps the best you can without stretching the fabric. It helps if you can get down on the floor or use a long kitchen counter. Measure along the folded line marking 9 inches in towards the selvage edges all the way down the entire length. Cut.
Now you’ve got one long 18″ wide strip of fabric with two other slightly wider strips left over. Set the other strips aside, you can turn those into wraps later.
Keep your long 18″ strip folded in half, but now fold it in half the other way, matching up the short ends.
Mark 2″ in from the fold (resulting in a 4″ short end when unfolded). Cut, tapering gently out to the 18″ wide mark. I haven’t determined the best length to end the taper at… right now I’ve only done about a yard, but I think it could taper out more gradually… maybe over two yards.
Here’s a terrible picture (my tutorials really go down hill when I’ve got a baby in arms) of the general idea of what each end should look like.
If you’ve chosen jersey knit cotton or even a light weight microfleece, you can leave the edges unfinished. I serge around the whole thing in coordinating thread.
I hope that helps! The Moby website has instructions on how to tie your wrap in different ways. As these instructions make a “knock off” of a recognized brand, please don’t use these instructions to make items for sale, that wouldn’t be nice to the Moby folks.
Happy baby wearing!
