Pattern Testing for Little Kiwis - Soft Structured Carrier for Dolls and Teds

The following post is about a pattern I tested yesterday but it is still in progress and not yet finished.

Lydia from Little Kiwis is presently developing a soft structured carrier (SSC) for kids to wear their favourite toy.

Getting Ready

According to the instructions, I cut out all my pieces and organised my supplies. I opted for fabric straps as I didn’t want to go to the shop just to buy webbing.

After cutting it all out I realised I had misread the instructions and cut twice as many strap pieces as I needed to – lol.

Constructing the Waist Band

I didn’t acknowledge that I needed to leave the waist band open a certain width to insert the main body so ended up having to unpick it later on.

I also basted the two fabric layers together first to help to eliminate shift when I sewed the wadding down. I just over-locked the wadding on to save double stitching. BTW, I would use thinner wadding next time. This was quite poofy.

Turned out – you will see I over-locked the side which had the wadding on it to make it easier to fold over in a later step. 

Adding the Pocket(s)

I like to try and make everything I make reversible just to be a little different and give a little flexibility in the use and wear of each garment.

So with that in mind, I added a pocket to each side of the main body of the carrier. Even though the buckles would be inward facing once inverted, I thought it would be a neat way to get two looks out of it. I figured once the buckles are set to fit the child they wouldn’t need adjusting again just to turn it inside out.

Adding the Shoulder Straps and Side Webbing

Again I misread where I was supposed to affix the straps but luckily adjusted before sewing. You can see in the image on the left I pinned them to the corners when in fact I want them pinned out of the way as I need to sew around the sides and neckline and don’t want to catch them when I do.

Adding the Chest Straps

According to the instructions, I was to sew the chest straps on. I did but my criss cross wasn’t perfect so I reverted to my old favourite – the snap press!

Ah – much better:-) I even had an idea of making something funky to snap on to these at a later date, again just to be a little bit different.

Isaac 3 1/2 years old

You can see in the pic that the chest strap sits much too high. Don’t fear as this is all part of the testing process and a variation on design is currently underway to eliminate this problem.

Holly 2 years old

Conversely, it fitted Holly very well but this is because the Dolly she had in it was much thinner/flatter. Poor Teddy had a fat bottom:-)

Pattern designed by Little Kiwis

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