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2016, August, babywearing, Bracknell Sling Library, Bracknell Sling Meet, buckle, buckles, Easyfeel, hood, library, review, reviews, sling meet, soft structured carrier, ssc, summer, toddler, toddler carrier
We’ve not posted for a while- sorry about that! Turns out summer is a funny old time for sling libraries- flipflopping between wonderfully busy and wonderfully quiet!
In the mean time we’ve acquired a few new things for the library, hosted a few travelling items (wraps and carriers) and moved some stock on, so please check out our library page to see what we’ve got in.
This week we had some exciting post- which came from the wonderful Sling Sally!
It was a new toddler size buckle carrier for us to try out for a couple of weeks. Whilst I’m really a wrapper at heart I am always searching for soft structured carriers we like, and in particular comfy toddler size buckles that myself and the husband can both use.
The carrier that arrived this week was a Toddler Size EasyFeel Soft Structured Carrier in a funky cream and blue/grey pattern. Easyfeel are a company from India who specialise in cloth nappies and are also now producing slings including ringslings and buckle carriers in both standard and toddler size.
The toddler size can be used from 11-22kg (24-48.5lb) and has a generous panel size that’s 42cm (16.5inches) wide by 44cm (17.3 inches) high. It also has seat darts in the main panel which give more room in the panel, giving it a good seat.
My first impression was that the waistband was super padded- more like a Tula but the padding is also very tall- almost 16cm (6.25inches) at the widest part in the middle, giving good support. there’s a handy littler pocket in the side of the waistband for keys or similar too.
The padding on the straps is also nice and thick, making it a very comfy carry. The buckles move well on the webbing and the straps are easy to tighten and loosen- particularly due to the shaped release clips, which are ergonomic to get your thumb under.
The flat hood with side drawstrings packs away neatly into an invisible pocket at the top of the back panel, but still looks attractive if left hanging out when not in use as it’s in the same fabric as the rest of the carrier and has a double drawstring which is quite decorative.
We were testing the carrier with our 14.2kg tall (98cm) not-quite-3 year-old, so well within the weight limit of the carrier. Both my husband and I tried the carrier on our backs and I also popped the toddler on my front too to try it.
For the back carries we used both the hip scoot method to get him onto our backs, the superman method, pulling the carrier up over us , and the Walk Like An Egyptian (Wrap You In Love) method.
We found the straps easy to adjust in front and back carries, we were able to get a high back carry and had no issues with anything digging in. Small person was arms out for daddy and arms in for me! Daddy took small to the park in the carrier and found it very comfortable. Small also said that he really liked it.
The padding is quite long on the shoulder straps and I had the webbing pulled right up as tight as it would go under my arms (luckily the buckles didn’t dig in), but thankfully the carrier also has the perfect fit adjusters where the panel joins the straps at the top, which made it easier to adjust in a front carry. This suggests that it might not be too suitable for very petite wearers as they might not be able to get it tight enough. All the webbing has elastic ‘strap tidies’ and there’s some nice thick legs-out padding to make the ride more comfortable for the child.
The EasyFeel buckle carriers are available from their website https://easyfeelproducts.com/ and range from a very reasonable 5000 to 5800 INR (£57-£66 approx). They come in a range of wonderful colours and patterns including handwoven fabrics for the slightly more expensive IKAT range.
