Sling brand Sestrice does not need much introduction on the babywearing market anymore. (The wraps have already been seen in the “WrapYouinLove” Hedwych posts, so that pretty much means that everybody knows them now, doesn’t it?!) Two sisters, who have decided to offer (to those of us who like to wear their kids) their own idea of what a wrap should be like, are in my opinion doing more than great! Therefore I gladly welcomed the opportunity to test SESTRICE wraps with my own back and children, i.e. my 13 month old, 12 kg weighing son and a 3 ½ year old, 16 kg daughter. Brand new silk wraps with favorite rooster-pattern, to be more specific, for that matter.
And what did we all think? Even though I am not at all that crazy about roosters (specifically those living just over the fence in our neighbor ´s chicken coop as they do their job of waking people up at 3 a.m.), those one visiting us from Barbora and Slavka, came with a completely different attitude! I was crazy about all of them from the very first moment they came in! Yes, them – we were testing three prototypes, all with bourette silk and cotton, with almost identical weight, but because the properties of threads do vary amongst different colors, there were certain variances noted.
I like wraps that are not only all-cotton, because even though on one hand they may be slightly more demanding “carewise”, they usually offer other virtues in return, so the challenge usually pays off.
As mentioned earlier, all of these 3 wraps were of bourette silk to cotton blend, with 46% silk to 54% cotton.
The wraps are packed in a nice all-cotton tote bag. To test visit, all of them came in already washed and ironed once, so it is hard to say how stiff or hard they might have felt in loomstate. But to me, that would be irrelevant, because, hey, who wears their baby without washing and ironing a not ready wrap anyway?
The recorded pre-wash weight was around 250g/m2, after washing both jade-green and grey-melange roosters weighed more than 280g/m2, and the weight of the natural color wrap, with non-dyed fibre was 274g/m2.
The remarks of the people we met when wearing roosters were all positive! They all either preferred the lively jade hues or claimed the natural color to be so elegant, serene or even festive, suitable even for very special occasions. So, hard to choose one, isn’t it??
Back to wearing properties. The silk element not only contributed to higher supporting capacity, as it comfortably carried my 16 kg girl, but I would be convinced that silk provides excellent thermo-regulating properties and thus making the wraps suitable to be used all year round, for toddlers and small babies alike. My small kid was warmly dressed, as it was cool outside, but didn’t really sweat, hence I felt comfortably and not hot walking quite briskly up the hill. I didn’t have to worry when putting my son down, letting him run for a while and then putting him up again. The spots where he had chewed on dried quite fast, and when I only wore the wrap on me I felt nicely warm, even when it was quite windy outside. To me this makes this silk-cotton blend great to be worn during the whole year!
Regarding the wrap “structure”; the cotton side is oh-so-soft and smooth (talking about all the color combinations here), bourette silk side has texture, feels a bit rougher, has nods and knots, so typical for this kind of yarn, I would say, to me it feels kinda “earthy”, a great complement to the rooster pattern! These features let the wraps attain such character, that one feels they have been a family member for a long time, there is no need to worry whether there is some pull or tear, because, hey, this wrap has been with us forever and is still perfect! It really behaves more like a good friend than something brand new:)
Well, first in the test was the gemmy “jade green roosters” wrap. Definitely an eye-catcher. First wrap impression? Great! The wrap had been washed and ironed once. Thanks to that cool green shade the wrap feels somewhat summery, but that is only the look, because silk is an all year round thread. Despite its weight the wrap feels thin and airy; definitely the thinnest and smoothest from these three. The wrapping job was easy, it glided perfectly in place, stayed there then, there was very little stretch, it became softer and softer after each use, so I felt we had been wearing in it at least for a month, not a few days! It passed the weight test with both children well. My older one had been up only for about 30 minutes, but the little one was always up for more than 2 hours, walking both in town and in the foothills. So this wrap is suitable for small kids to toddlers alike. When I wore my little one on my back, in double hammock, that is, the carry held stable, comfortably, and didn’t move even when my son tried to get hold of all leaves on trees within his reach, pluck grapes or blackberries, or help me pick rosehips, i.e. he was never still but was quite the opposite all the time, a boy in action! So the wrap had just enough stretch, didn’t stick out anywhere, didn’t pull on shoulders even when we were running down the hill the catch the other one riding her bike. Because of the weather I preferred multi layer carries and despite my not really small clothes size I was able to wrap everything with this size 6 and still have nice tails. It really wraps thin, with a nice knot, even a single one was ok but I prefer a double knot, my toddler is a rather active one, so it is like a double check.. I wore the wrap on various kinds of cloth types, due to the weather I had to use my winterish soft-shell jacket or a knitted sweater or just when rocking the kid to sleep at home a plain T-shirt. I can say the wrap worked just fine on any material, even the smooth softshell. To be honestly able to say I had tested this silk wrap thoroughly, I even tried to wash and iron it. Everything was fairly easy. Ironing was no extra fuss. I must say, extra points were scored as Jade was ironed easier than some of my all-cotton wraps! So I can say, if someone felt hesitant whether to buy this silk or not for the sake of fussy care, this wrap is a piece of cake!
The Roosters in undyed yarn are cracking. The wrap had passed all the weight, carries and landscape tests well, behaving comparably to its jade green sister. However, this wrap seems to be the softest and definitely the fluffiest of them all. And that is despite its lowest weight. My 16 kg girl asked to be worn in front in this one and it was just fine. Because of its softness, sophistication and also the natural off-white color, this wrap seems to be a perfect one for a newborn or a small baby or of course, any child that still wants to be carried. Yet, the light color may seem a bit unpractical especially with bigger kids that want to go up and down, so here maybe a size shorter than 6 would work better. Nevertheless, we wore and wrapped this 6 when walking outside, and since the weather was fairly dry it didn’t suffer any major smudges. Wrapping was great, didn’t slide a bit, was easy to wrap with from the beginning, but became easier and smoother with every use and the rooster pattern thanks to the silk yarn even in a single color came out beautifully, quite like 3D; especially in the sun.
The roosters’ wrap in grey mélange dye was a nice tie job, although a little bit tough at start, so this wrap is more suitable for more experienced wrappers and not quite for newborns either, also due to that roughness of silk, although this side of the wrap is not facing the baby, it is the “wrong” wrap side. The so-called right side is light-colored cotton one and is smooth and soft. Needles to say both sides look beautiful, and I like to wear the wraps both ways out and twisting it, as that really lets the wrap to show off. I must stress here that after few uses the wrap became wonderfully soft, so the suitability is really up to the wearer. And actually I totally appreciated that bit of roughness as it held the carry in place like glue. Also, my scoliotic back makes it easy for everything to slip down from my left shoulder; but not with this wrap! It is very supportive, so perfect for bigger kids. I loved the smell of silk here, loved the color play in the sun, when it changed to a pretty silvery hue, it carried all the weight I used it for, didn’t slide on my clothes. All summed up; this wrap definitely found its new home:)
I want to thank SESTRICE for letting us play with so much silk and I hope all places where these roosters find their new homes will be as happy and satisfied with them as we were. (And I can’t wait for what there is in stock next! )
