I love the Ergo baby carrier. It is definitely the most comfortable way to carry a baby around for any period of time. Roman loves it too, mostly to eat! He loves to chew, dribble and drool all over the straps. It can be a bit of a pain to wash, so I thought I’d make up these teething pads as they’re much easier to wash than the whole carrier.
You want to use a fairly absorbent fabric for the back and something nice and natural for the front… your baby will be eating them after all! I used 2 layers of cotton jersey for the back, and a cotton print for the front. If you like, you can add a loop to attach toys.
Ergo Teething Pads
You’ll need:
Main fabric
Backing fabric (such as terry toweling, flannelette, or thick jersey)
6 snaps/press studs or 2 strips of velcro
8cm/3″ strip of ribbon or bias binding for the loop (optional)
Pre-wash your fabrics. Usually, when I skip this step I regret it.
Using the pattern, cut out 2 pieces of your main fabric, and 2 of your backing fabric.
Using 1 piece of main fabric, and one of the backing, place them right sides together. Repeat with the other pieces. If you’re attaching the ribbon loop, fold the ribbon in half and using the mark on the pattern, put it between the pieces of fabric for one of the pads, with the fold pointing in.
Sew around the edges with an 8mm (3/8″) seam, leaving a hole about 5cm (2″) to turn the work right side out. Clip the corners. Repeat with other piece.
Turn right side out. Poke the corners out to make them nice and crisp and then press flat. Make sure the opening to pressed nice and evenly. Working 5mm from the edge, top stitch all the way around. This will close the opening at the same time.
Use the pattern to mark where to attach your snaps by laying your finished piece within the guide and marking the centre of your snaps. Attach your snaps. If using velcro, use the centre of the snaps as your guide and then sew/glue/iron on your velcro.
Tracey @ www.dontmesswithmama.com says
Love this idea. I’m a huge fan of the Ergo baby carrier too. Just wish I had sewing skills.
thingsforboys says
Tracey – There are lots of these for sale on etsy. Ergo suck pads
Amy P says
What is it with babies and sucking on those darn straps!? I have a Beco carrier and I swear they made the straps out of candy or something.
thingsforboys says
so true Amy!
PinkOddy says
What a great idea. I never was lucky enough to have one but never needed to wash my connecta.
Julie says
Thanks! Making these this week.
Anonymous says
Thanks so much for sharing this! I love it!
Anonymous says
making mine as soon as the Ergo arrives 🙂
Davina says
My sewing machine had arrive today and made my pad today. So good! Thanks for sharing this. Just wondering where do you buy all the interesting fabrics?
thingsforboys says
That’s great Davina! I get most of my fabric from the big local craft store and the rest comes from thift stores and ‘gifts’. The fabric on the ergo pads was from my hubby’s grandmothers stash. I got a lot of great fabrics from her collection. Friends often give me fabric they come across if they don’t sew themselves.
Miss V says
Hii, may I know what is the size of the pad. The pattern didn’t say how many cm. Thanks!
thingsforboys says
Hi Miss V – the finished pads are 23cm x 19cm tall (9 x 7.5″).
shirley says
I’ve printed the pattern and measured along the trim line which is 9″. Is this the cut length rather than the finished length or do I add 3/8″ to the pattern for the seam allowance?
abby says
It should have seam allowance included, though my pieces were cut at 10″ wide. Perhaps you didn’t print it at 100%?
erinantonelli says
Thank you for this pattern! I had to print mine on landscape to get the correct size 🙂 I love my suck pads. Had everything at home…much much cheaper than I’ve seen them go for.
Kathryn says
I’m interested in making my own but how do you know which fabrics are baby-safe??
abby says
If you want to be super safe, then I would go with plain organic cotton calico/muslin, or choose organic fabrics with carefully chosen dyes. To be honest, I didn’t think about it that much :/
Stacey says
Thanks for posting this tutorial! I was searching for the measurements of the Ergo teething pads and found this tutorial. Saved me the time of figuring out measurements and snap placement. Going to try this today!
abby says
hehe. That’s why I put it on the blog. I figured I’d already gone to the trouble to measuring it so I might as well save someone else the trouble.
Jenny says
Thanks for posting this great tutorial. Made some lovely pads for my manduca carrier and they look great. Added a second loop with a different colour ribbon and it looks great.
Now just waiting for the rain to stop to take my baby out! (We’re in the UK so we could be waiting a while!)
abby says
glad to hear they turned out well!