We are big baby carriers at the Good house. Don’t get me wrong, we have our fair share of strollers (7!) but most of the time we carry our babies. Ellis slept a ton in the carrier during his first year. Calvin spends as much time being carried because it means I can be hands-free. In fact, he is in the carrier as I write this.

I have a couple of carriers that I love. I’m looking at you Maya ring sling. But the Ergo Baby Carrier does the heavy lifting (literally) in this family. It is the best carrier for Adam, it is the most user-friendly for friends to throw on, and it is the most comfortable for day-to-day carrying for me.

The Ergo has been with us from the start. It was a baby shower gift (Thanks Gran Jan and Grande John). And we have used it almost constantly in the past 3.5 years. If I had to guess I would say we have used that thing for 3-4 hours each day for 20 months with Ellis and nine months with Calvin. That is roughly 3,087 hours of use! That thing is a work horse and an essential part of surviving infancy for us. I imagine we will keep using the Ergo with Cal for another nine months at least.

Sadly our old carrier was starting to show it’s age. The organic cotton lining had rubbed away along the edges and the batting was starting to fall out. The hood, or as we like to call it, the most expensive napkin we own, was stained and worn.

Buying a new carrier was out of the question, because Calvin only gets hand-me-downs , there is still a lot of life left in the carrier and at this point it has become our lovie. It desperately needed a facelift though.

I am NOT an expert sewer (is that really the word for person who sews? Unfortunate…). I lucked into a beautiful old sewing machine (Adam’s Grandmother’s 1952 featherweight singer) and it makes me want to learn. I decided to take the plunge and try to replace the lining myself.

I picked out an animal print from dwell studio from my stash. The fabric is leftover curtains from a bedding set I found at the thrift store. We only used the crib skirt from the set. The curtains are short and I knew I would never use them as curtains. The fabric is super babyish, but so is the baby carrier. It was also the right-weight cotton for the job I think; I don’t really know what that means, but I think it makes me sound like a more proficient sewer seamstress (Adam says this is the correct word for a person who sews).

Two nights later … presto. A new-looking baby carrier! I am pretty happy with how this turned out. I probably won’t start making all the play clothes out of curtains, but it feels good to stretch the life of our most prized baby gear.