My little drooler was making quite her mark on our new Ergo 360 carrier when facing outwards. It's a bit of a bummer that Ergo had decided to make the portion near the babies mouth beige because it gets dirty and stained pretty quickly. (Note issue below)
So I decided to make a drool guard for when she is facing outwards (along with the drool pads for the shoulder straps). Now I am not at all an expert seamstress - so if I can do it, I think you'd be able to do it too.
Here is the finished product. Next I'll show the steps on how I made it.
Pattern:
The hardest part of this whole project was creating the pattern. I had a few ideas of how I could make the drool guard but decided on a pattern that folded around the upper/front part of the Ergo and had two longer straps that would velcro to the back. (For creating my own patterns I find that mactac - or shelf cover (sticky stuff left on), from the dollar store works really well since it bends and moves, but is strong enough to cut and keep it's shape.)
The pattern looked like this:
Fabric:
There were two different types of fabric that I needed. First I bought 1/2 a yard of quilted mattress cover fabric. This is plastic on one side and has quilted cotton on the other side. The quilted cotton added a nice 'poof' to the project, while the plastic keeps the drool from going any further than the drool catcher.
I chose cute fabric next - it doesn't have to be flannel, but I just thought the flannel was nice and soft since this would be against baby's face. About 1/2 a yard of this as well.
When cutting the fabric place your pattern on the fabric and cut one quilted cotton and two fabric pieces. So that you have three pieces in total.
Sewing:
Placing the fabric correctly before sewing is SO important. I have spent a lot of time undoing stitches, so please learn from me!
Put the patterned sides of the fabric against each other - so that pattern is against pattern. Then take your quilted cotton and put it on either side. The most important part is that the patterned sides of the fabric are facing each other so that when you flip them inside out, they are both on the outside.
Next sew the pieces together, leaving a small section open. This section should be big enough so that you are able to flip the entire project inside out.
Once the project is inside out, I decided to top stitch around entire liner just to give it a finished look and also to sew closed that hole I had left for flipping the project inside out.
Velcro:
At this point - pat yourself on the back! You have one step left! Adding the velcro is super easy.
Just place the drool cover over your Ergo 360 and put the straps together like it will be when the velcro is attached.
I took a pencil and made a mark in the fabric just to identify where the long strap ends. This way I knew where to add the velcro.
Pin your velcro down onto the straps and sew it securely onto the fabric.
Your velcro should end up with the hook on one side and the latch on the other so that it can be attached together.
And just like that - you have a drool catcher for your Ergo 360!
Just for kicks I also made drool guards for the straps. These are SO easy I won't go into major detail.
Make a rectangular piece of fabric - using the same system you did with the drool guard. Fold it around the strap of the Ergo to figure out where the velcro should go and sew the velcro on!
Voila - designer drool guards and your Ergo 360 saver!
