Tutorial: Make a Ergo Inspired Baby Doll Carrier Using 1 Fat Square

After looking around on Pinterest to find tutorials for an Ergobaby style baby doll carrier and finding ones that were way too flimsy looking or way too complicated, I decided to challenge myself and come up with a design that used 1 fat square of fabric and materials that you could easily find at your mega mart. Oh, and a sewing machine too. I actually found a few tutorials on no-sew carriers, but I was hoping to find something a bit more like the real thing because we will be having a new baby in the house and I think both Nathan and Hannah would love carrying around their own babies. 

Ideally, I would've liked to use thicker ribbon or straps for the fasteners, but I could only find 3/5" ones at Walmart in the craft section. I decided to just go for it because I had a bunch of 3/5" ribbon at home. 

Here's a picture of Nathan with his finished carrier.

Materials: 

1 Fat quarter of fabric 

45" of 3/5" wide ribbon (or thicker based on your clip fasteners)

2 pairs clip fasteners

Sewing machine, thread and bobbin

Cotton Batting (optional) 

1. Cut the fat quarter as pictured below: 

• First cut the 8" high piece (on the bottom). This forms the part that touches the baby's back. 
• Then from the top, cut 2 strips of fabric 3.5" x 14". This forms the 2 shoulder straps. 
• Leave the remaining last piece in tact and simply fold it in half for now (as shown by dotted line). We will work with this piece for the next step to make the waist strap. 

2. The folded piece should be close to the dimensions shown below. This piece is folded in half right now, right sides together, and then folded in half again to create a strap that is symmetrical on both sides. With the fold on the right side, make a mark 2" in. (This will be the little flap that sticks down from the main strap).

 3. Imagine that the photo below is rotated like the one pictured above. Make a mark on the opposite side 2.5" down from the top. This will be the main thickness of the strap (with seam allowance).

 4. Draw a line close to the edge of the fold to the first 2" mark line and then dip down a bit to extend the line all the way to the second 2.5" mark that you made.

 5. At this point, you should have the following pieces:

• (top) 1 piece
• (middle) 2 pieces 
• (bottom) 2 pieces. 

 6. Take 1 piece of the middle piece and 1 of the bottom piece and use them as a guide to cut a piece of batting. For the middle piece, cut the batting strip into 2 equal pieces lengthwise as shown.

 7. Take the top piece and fold it in half. With the folded edge on top and the open edges on the bottom, make 2- 2" cuts, 20 cm apart, centered, at the bottom of the fabric. (Again, do this right sides of the fabric facing in.)

 8. To make the contour lines that make room for the little baby doll bums, you are going to sew the slits together. I've included the final product below to show you what we need to accomplish at the end.

• At each of the cuts, you are going to turn the right sides facing each other and sew a wedge from the top of the cut to the edge of the fabric. 

•  In the picture below, the slit that I cut in the fabric is now where the fabric is folded in half. Slit is on the right side, and I'm just going to sew a diagonal line down, ending about 1/3" in from the slit. 

•  This is what it should look like on the right side of the fabric. 

•  Complete this for all 4 slits. 

 9. Bring the right side of the fabric together, lining up the edges and the sewed "slits" and then with the folded edge on the top, sew along the right and left edge of the fabric.

•  When you are finished, turn the piece inside out and you should have something that looks like this. Measure the width of the edge where the slits were. You will need to save this measurement + 0.5" to get a number. Remember this number. 

 10. To make the waist strap, layer a piece of batting, fabric (right side up), and 11" piece of ribbon as shown.

 11. Place another piece of fabric over the ribbon (right side down) and fold the part that's sticking out down. Pin in place.

 12. On the other end, you will do something similar, but this time, you'll take a 4-5" piece of ribbon, attach the female end of the clip and sew a few stitches to keep the ribbon from twisting too much.

 13. Sandwich the ribbon/clip strap on the other side of the waist strap again, folding over and pinning down a small section of ribbon that you leave sticking out.

14. Look at the picture  below. Notice that the middle bottom section is not sewed together. The width of the gap should be the magic number that you calculated in step 9. Be sure the gap is centered.

 15. Flip the piece so that the right sides are now back outside. You can use the ribbon and straps to help pull the skinny strap inside out. Your piece should now look like this.

 16. Now you will sew the straps. Fold a piece of the strap lengthwise, right side in and then put a piece of batting underneath the 2 layers.

 17. You are now going to attach a 11" strap by sandwiching it between the 2 right sides of the fabric.

•  Place the ribbon down the middle of the strip. Fold the fabric strip in half, and then fold/pin down the excess 1/2" piece you left sticking out. 

 18. Repeat for both straps. Alternating sides. In the picture below, both strips have the folded edge on top and then the ribbon is folded over on opposite sides.

 19. Sew 2 of the open edges as shown below, stitching over the ribbon at least twice. Leave the edge opposite to where the ribbon is attached open. Make sure the ribbon is centered so you don't sew the ribbon to any of the seams.

 20. Flip each strap inside out. At some point, you'll be able to use the strap attached to pull everything inside out.

 21. Repeat for the other strap. Use the end of a pen to push out the corners if needed. You should have 2 straps that look like this:

 22. Lay down the back piece and the waist strip as shown below.

•  Flip the back piece down so that the right sides are facing each other. And sew the 2 touching layers of fabric only. (You may or may not want to include the batting). 

• You should end up with something that looks like this. You are going to tuck in the top piece and fold down the bottom piece a bit to match the seams. Sew the 2 edges together. 

• To clean up this edge, you may want to take a look at where the clip is on the strap and determine a front and a back to the carrier. Fold the top portion down so that the front sides are facing each other and sew a seam all the way across the top edge. 

• Once you open it back up, you'll get this nice and clean look from the front. 

23. Sew a seam down the middle of each strap.

24. Lay down each strap in an angle as shown. Pin the straps to the rest of the carrier.

24. Sew the straps to the corner edges.

• Open the straps back up and sew another line below the seam to help the straps lay flat with the part of the carrier that touches the baby doll's back. 

25. At this point, find your child, put the carrier on your child and figure out where you need to pin the ribbon to the front of the carrier. For both of my kids it was about 1/3 from the top of the carrier. Pin the ribbon down and sew it securely to the front of the carrier. 

26. About 1" from the bottom of the fabric straps, you are going to need to attach another set of clip fasteners. Cut a 4" strip of ribbon for the female end of the clip (like you did for the waist strap) and attach it to one of the straps. 

27. On the other strap, cut a 6 inch strip, fold one edge over and sew to prevent unraveling (oh, at this point, you may want to do the same thing for the male end of the clip for the waist strap). Attach the male end of the clip and sew the ribbon/clip to the other shoulder strap, 1" from the bottom (where the fabric meets the ribbon).

In the end, it should look like this in the back.

My daughter posing with her new baby carrier. She's almost 3. My son, who is almost 5 can wear this as well with room to spare.

I hope you liked this tutorial.