01 02 03 Down In My Heart Joy!: Didymos Cotton Indio - Blue + White and Dark Blue + White wrap and ringsling Review 04 05 15 16 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 31 32 33

Didymos Cotton Indio - Blue + White and Dark Blue + White wrap and ringsling Review

Pictured above is a Didymos Cotton Indio wrap - DARK blue and white, size 7. I purchased it to have it made into a mei tai (or WCMT wrap conversion mei tai). However, the person who was going to sew the conversion for me said that she prefers not to use indios for conversions. Their weave is very loose - if you hold it up to the light, you can easily see light spilling through the threads. She recommended a thicker/heavier weave wrap fabric, so I had it made from something different.

I really loved the fabric and colors though. It is a deep navy blue that borders on a charcoal hue, woven with a creamy white. The pattern is classy and versatile - seeming to go with everything I might want to wear it with. Due to the loose-ness of the weave, it is airy and breathable, while remaining supportive (sturdy and comfortable for a heavier child). These two characteristics rarely go hand-in-hand with woven wraps (airy plus supportive), making Indios special.

Didymos (the brand) makes the Indio weave out of pretty much every imaginable natural fiber - cotton, silk, hemp, and wool, and varying blends of those fibers. They make "natty" (un-dyed natural-colored fiber) indios, and indios of various colors. They also come in different thicknesses - some very light and thin like this one, and some heavier, squishier, and warmer.

After this one wasn't going to work for the conversion, I couldn't bring myself to sell it because I loved the color and look of it, as well as its characteristics. However, a size 7 wrap is way too long for me - I am wearing a double hammock with a saltwater finish in the above photos, which uses up a lot of fabric in the passes around our bodies, but the tails of the wrap still hang down almost to my ankles.

While it sat in a drawer, I contemplated selling it or having it cut into something shorter. I tried to sell it but it didnt' sell. Then someone offered to trade a blue and white ring sling for a different wrap I was selling. Yes, that was what I really wanted.

Then it arrived.

And I discovered that there is such a thing as a DARK blue and white indio, and a Blue and White Indio. Didymos apparently wasn't super creative about what they decided to name those two wraps. I had one of each, and didn't even realize they both existed.

The Blue + White Indio (pictured below) is almost royal blue threads mixed with pure white threads. Side-by-side comparison is also below.

Color Comparison: Left Didymos Blue and White Indio, Right Didymos Dark Blue and White Indio

Didymos Blue and White Cotton Indio ring sling with blue sling rings

The blue and white Indio ring sling was a size large, with fringe, and with blue sling rings. The rings are also a royal blue color. As pretty as the ring sling was, it was way too long for me (size Large, again, coming almost to my ankles), so I had to wrap it several times around the rings just to make the length manageable. And of course the color wasn't what I wanted either. Then it had a gathered shoulder (how the fabric is sewn when attached to the rings), which isn't my favorite shoulder style. So I sold it.

It was time to just have the wrap I liked cut into what I wanted it to be.

Since a size 7 wrap is so long, I was able to have it cut into a size 3 shorty wrap, which I sold, and a size extra small ring sling. I mailed the wrap to Sleeping Baby Productions, a conversion artist who exclusively makes ring slings out of fabric or woven wraps. She cut the wrap into the two pieces, (the size three shorty and the ring sling), and sewed my ring sling to my specifications. I requested slate colored sling rings, which I think turned out to be a nice match with the fabric colors.

My current favorite shoulder style for a ring sling is called an Eesti shoulder. It's a hybrid of a semi-pleated, semi-gathered stitch. I've tried a bunch of different ring slings, and to date, this is the most comfortable one for me to wear. It's usually recommended for women with broad shoulders, but I find it very comfortable on my narrow shoulders.

This is the perfect summer baby carrier, since a ring sling only puts one layer of fabric around you and around baby, and the cotton Indio is so thin and airy and breathable, that it doesn't add extra warmth or bulk. I'm super happy with this ring sling and hope it gets a lot of use around here. The ring sling I'm wearing the most at the moment is also an Indio, but one made from hemp, since it's warmer for winter. This one will be my go-to once summer arrives.

The only downside to Indios is since the weave is so loose, it's extremely easy for a thread to get caught on something - jewelry, or anything remotely "poky" that might be near it. If a thread gets caught, it will "pull" its way out of the fabric slightly, leaving a dangling thread that isn't too attractive. They can be worked back into the fabric, but it takes a steady hand and great patience. This wrap came to me with one large pull (over an inch long) that I've worked on some, but haven't had the patience to finish working it back into the fabric completely. It's not noticeable when the sling is in-use, and doesn't affect the safety or usability of the sling, so it's just cosmetic.

Other than being pull-prone, there isn't anything not to love about Didymos Indios. They are one of my favorite carriers right now.

Just make sure if you like it, you know if you are getting DARK blue and white or the regular blue and white. Hehee. Lesson learned.

A friend recently told me that she had owned a Dark blue and white cotton Indio that was much thicker than mine. Mine is extremely thin - the thinnest Indio I've touched (although I have not yet touched a silk Indio which I've heard are the thinnest of them all).

Also, random fashion tip: I am wearing a maxi dress, not a maxi skirt, with a sweater over the top. I love maximizing my wardrobe by using dresses as skirts (or sometimes blouses if they are a short dress).

Didymos Dark Blue and White cotton Indio ring sling with Slate sling rings

Last but not least, some ring sling basic wearing and safety tips.

Here are the two videos that helped me learn how to comfortably wear a ring sling.

Threading the Ring Sling
Using the Ring Sling

A few little safety tips for ring slings:

1. High enough to kiss. Baby should be high up enough on your body that you can easily kiss their head without straining. If they are too low on your body, that you cannot kiss at least the top of their head, it is probably not the most comfortable carry for either of you, and for a newborn, it could be unsafe. If you lower the baby to allow them to nurse inside the ring sling, when they are done nursing, they should be raised back up to the "high-enough-to-kiss" position.

2. Knees higher than bum. You want the baby to be seated deeply in the fabric, so their knees are slightly higher up than their bum.

3. Two fingers between chin and chest. With a toddler, this is obviously not an issue. But with a newborn or little baby who is still gaining head control, you want to be sure their head is resting in a way that you can easily fit two of your fingers between their chin and chest. If their chin is down on their chest without any space, this can constrict their airway - which would obviously be unsafe.

4. For a toddler like Jax, the back of the sling should come up to his armpits at a minimum if he is "arms out" like in these photos. If it were lower than his armpits, he could arch backward out of it. I like to get it just above his shoulders when He isn't arms-out. For a newborn, the back of the fabric can come up to beneath their ears, so that it gives them some head support for their wobbly head.

5. Ring slings are not recommended for back carries. Although some very experienced wearers have done so, it is not advisable. Back carries need to be very secure, since you can't see what is going on with the baby, and a ring sling does not adequately meet that need. It is best to use a carrier that is suitable for back carries, rather than attempting one with a ring sling that might put the baby in an unsafe position.

Labels: baby wearing

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