Availability: Online only (Ebay Store)
Average Price: $40+S/H
Product Link: KimzKreations Slings (look for the solarveil slings, her stock is always changing.)
Rating:

Summertime upon us, I found myself needing a new sling for an as-of-yet unexplored aspect of motherhood: Swimming with the little one. Poking around the internet and checking out some other slings- both mesh and solarveil, I decided to give “KimzKreations” slings a try.

THE PURCHASE:

Purchasing from Kim was different than most of my online purchases. Usually I trudge through some obscure “how to measure yourself” documents that I find buried on the site I’m purchasing from, mull over it and worry that I’m making the wrong decision, perhaps email the contact address at the site and wait ages to hear back with an answer that only partially addresses my question. Such are the joys of e-commerce.

When I loaded up the KimzKreations site and noticed that she was an ebay store, I almost closed out the store and tried another one- but since Kim’s slings had come highly recommended by the “Adventures in Babywearing” blog, I decided to give it a shot. Ebayers are a hit or miss proposition even after you’ve weighed in the feedback and their star rating. Sometimes they take too long to ship. Usually they’re selling exactly what they’ve described, just not quite what you had imagined. Or they’re selling something that isn’t quite.. usable. The only other time I had purchased a baby carrier from eBay it was a Mei Tai, whose straps- even though I had bought them according to measuring advice- barely wrapped around my body and secured my then 3 month old son- and quickly became useless as he grew larger.

Regardless, I took the Babywearer’s recommendation to heart and forged ahead.

Less than a half an hour after I clicked “buy now” and filled in my paypal information, an email was in my mailbox with sizing information. Kim and I bounced emails back and forth quickly figuring out the perfect length for what I was looking for- at first I wanted a medium, but then I read Kim’s sizing information and settled on a “short” because I’ll be using the sling mostly for swimming and don’t need that much of a cover-up with the tail. Unlike with other purchases, I felt confident that my decision was the correct one- and when the sling arrived it fit exactly like I had hoped and imagined based on our emails back and forth.

I had purchased the sling believing it would take a few weeks to get it, because Kim had mentioned in her auction that she was expecting the shipment of the white solarveil fabric. So when she said that she had started on the sling, I was amazed. I was even more amazed when I learned that she had shipped it, and then amazed again when it was in my mail far in advance of a few purchases from other vendors that I was expecting which had supposedly shipped a few days earlier.

My experience with purchasing from Kim left me wishing that she sewed Mei Tais as well, even though her prices are slightly higher than some of the other online stores and ebay shops.

But on to the sling itself.

The Rings:

Kim uses small strong molded nylon rings for her slings instead of larger rings or metal rings. At first I was a bit put off by this because I like metal rings, but she explained that the Solarveil is very slippery and that larger or metal rings don’t grasp it as well as the nylon rings do. Kim expressed some safety concerns with other sling makers that use metal/larger rings, and after getting my sling, I can’t imagine using the fabric with other types of rings. The rings that Kim sews with grasp the fabric very well, and I like the range of colors that she offers. I settled on dark green rings which look very nice with my white solarveil material.

The Shoulder/Pleat:

Kim had mentioned that she had a unique “combination” style shoulder pleat, but who doesn’t? I thought “that’s nice” and filed it away under “the things that people say to promote their products”, not realizing until I pulled the sling out of its package that she was right. The pleat goes “in” from each direction, and have a wide open-pleated area in the center. Most other slings that I’ve used eiither have the pleat all going in one direction, which limits the sling to a single shoulder, or the pleats touch or overlap in the middle, which causes slippage or constricted movement. This sling grasps my shoulder snugly and the rings stay where I put them, which is no small feat when you consider the slippery solarveil fabric and the fact that I predominantly use this sling in the water. Even when I adjust the position of my son and pull on the rails to snug him in, the rings stay put and the shoulder and back stay untwisted and comfortable without my having to shift his weight and futz with the rings too much. I’d also like to add that, despite the rings being significantly smaller than the rings in my other slings (which are medium/large metal rings), the shoulder pleat is almost twice as wide and wraps up the sides of the rings. VERY comfortable on the shoulder! The wider shoulder design also helps the solarveil material to grasp the rings more firmly, as more fabric is in the rings at any given time.

For comparison, see the shot that shows the two rings. On the left is my white KimzKreations solarveil sling with small nylon rings, on the right is my blue cotton chambray Taylor Made sling with medium aluminum rings. Note the super-wide pleats on the KimzKreations sling, and how the center area is more open. Click on the thumbnail of the image to see the shoulders larger. It will open in a new window.

The Fabric:

I had chosen white solarveil, as most pools in NYC have requirements that if you wear a teeshirt or other item into the pool, that it be white. So, despite the fact that all solarveil fabric is guaranteed to not leech dye off into the water, I figured I’d play it safe and go with the white fabric. I was pleasantly surprised by the fabric- some shots that I saw on the internet of the fabric made it look like ugly curtains that your grandmother would have. But what the heck- I was only planning on using it for swimming anyway. Not much could compete with the ugly factor of my basic blue speedo, or the lovely swim cap that NY pools make you wear! In person, though, the sling fabric actually has a very pleasant gauzy look to it. Very breathable open knit that is UV resistant far beyond what you’d imagine from looking at it. I used some Huggies “sun sensors” that came with my son’s swim diaper, and placed them on the beverage tray of our stroller, then covered them with a single layer of the solarveil sling. After 30 minutes in direct sunlight on a bright July day they stayed mostly yellow, indicating “no” or “slight” to moderate exposure to UVB rays. The second sun sensor that was left on top of the solarveil sling turned dark orange after less than 5 minutes. Yet, it’s airy enough for me to use as a sun cover on my son’s jogging stroller- I just un-thread the rings and drape it over the stroller with the rings acting as a weight in the back.

The Stitching:

The stitching is very firm, with strong thread and no loose corners or raw edging. I don’t imagine this to be any small feat, as the solarveil material feels like it would cut with a very rough edge. The hems lay flat.

The Width:

One possible issue with the KimzKreations sling is that it is a 26″ wide vs. the 33″ wide Taylormade slings. If you prefer a wider sling, you may find this too shallow. For my purposes, however, I found it to be wonderfully deep- providing my somewhat tall son with an ample pouch to sit in, and still rising up above his shoulderblades for great UV-protecting coverage.

How it Feels in the Pool:

Unlike mesh slings, this sling holds onto a bit more of the water when you leave the pool, but it wrings out very easily and the UV protectant factor is more than enough to make up for the slight water-logging. In the pool it has a pleasant lightness and swish to it, much lighter than the teeshirt that I used to swim in when I was a teenager.

How it Works as a Cover-Up:

While the sheer fabric doesn’t provide quite enough modesty to satisfy my mother in law who would have me nurse in a tent if at all possible, it provides more than enough coverage to sheild the casual onlooker. It also works really well as a summer cover-up as it’s very breathable. My son sweats if I cover him up with even a super-light birds-eye weave cloth diaper, and finds the solarveil material to be a more pleasant cover-up.

The Conclusion:

While I have only used this sling as a swim-sling due to a herniated disc in my back that makes it impossible to carry my son outside of the water, I wish I could use this sling for carrying on land as it is SO comfortable. It is almost as comfortable as my Mei Tai and Moby wrap, which is very unusual in a sling, as the other two carriers are two-shoulder carriers that wrap around multiple points on the back.

In short. I LOVE THIS SLING!