Best Woven Wrap for Beginners
If you are new to woven wraps, the best wrap for you is one that is soft and easy to use brand new, like Girasol wraps. An easy to use material can make the difference between loving wrapping or giving it up as too hard.
There are 3 important qualities for choosing the best woven wrap and a lot of wrap brands have the first two but Girasol wraps have all 3:
- safety
- support/comfort
- ease of use
Choosing an Easy to Use Woven Wrap
The simplest way to get an easy to use woven wrap is to get a brand that is consistently known for being soft and floppy brand new, such as Girasol or Little Frog.
A lot of wrap brands have different wraps with different qualities, so some of their wraps will be more beginner-friendly than others. If you are in love with one of these wraps, ask around for experience about that exact design or look for a medium-thin wrap that is 100% cotton woven with a twill, honeycomb or herringbone weave, in your base size or smaller.
Fabric Content: 100% cotton is not as stiff as many blends and is also easy to care for if you have just one wrap and not a lot of time to baby it.
Weave: the pattern of the weaving of the fabric can affect how it wraps and how soft it is when new. Twill, Hoenycomb and Herringbone weaves are often easy to use while jacquard weaves can vary a lot between designs – some being easy to use and some are a lot more work to break in.
Fabric Weight: this is one way to measure how dense the wrap material is. The denser it is, the more stiff and difficult to manipulate it may be. A wrap that is TOO thin may feel diggy and cause pressure points for a newbie wrapper, while a wrap that is too thick can be difficult to tighten well enough to be safe and comfortable. We measure fabric weight in “grams per square meter” more commonly written as GSM or g/m². Beginner wrappers should look for gsm that is in the low 200s range for the sweet spot of comfort and ease of use.
Best Size Woven Wrap for a Beginner?
Woven wrap sizing helps you find a wrap that will be easiest for you to use. Choose your base size wrap for the most popular carries (full length carries) or a wrap that is 2 sizes smaller than your base size if you live somewhere hot, want faster carries with fewer layers, or just prefer fewer layers.
Your Base Size is the woven wrap size that will best fit you for full length carries. Choose based on the unixex t-shirt that fits you best (remember, you may like loose tshirts, but a loose wrap will not work properly, so go by the tshirt size that fits your body best without added bagginess):
Small or Medium T-shirt = size 5 wrap
Large or XL T-shirt = size 6 wrap
2X or 3X t-shirt = size 7 wrap
4X or 5X t-shirt = size 8 wrap
6X or 7X T-shirt = size 9 wrap
If you are wrapping a 2 year old or older, you may want to go up one size or think of your size as one tshirt size larger because they take up more room in the wrap.
Because parents come in many sizes, and there are many different ways to use woven wraps, the wraps come in a wide variety of sizes. This allows you to find the perfect length that will not feel overwhelming or difficult to manage, but will be just right to wrap around you and your baby or toddler.
Most people start with a base size wrap but experienced wrappers love to learn all the different ways to use wraps in all the different sizes.
There is not just one size woven wrap that is right for you, and plus size parents do not have to use the longest wrap sizes. However, base size is the most common place to start and will give you tons of options.
If you are nervous that the wrap won’t be long enough for you because you are a bigger mom, please visit this page for examples of many ways plus size moms rock different wrap sizes.
If you need examples of how dads use different wrap sizes, this gallery of wrapping dads of various sizes is for you.
And for anyone wanting more info on what you can do with different wrap sizes, I made you this list of carries you can do with each size wrap.
Do Woven Wraps Need Breaking In?
Some brands do, while other wrap brands start out soft and malleable enough to use immediately.
Many woven wrap brands are high quality but start out stiff and soften as you use them more, so eventually they get easier to use.
For many experienced wrappers, a wrap that needs breaking in is not a deterrent. They know they will have to spend some months breaking in the fabric and own other wraps they can use in the meantime.
They expect and plan to break in the new wrap by braiding, ironing, running through rings, etc.
Do Woven Wraps get Softer?
All woven wraps get softer and floppier the more you use them and wash them.
This is great news because it means they just get better and better!
Give yourself the best chance of success learning to wrap your baby and to love woven wraps by choosing a wrap that is:
- easy to learn with
- supportive for both your comfort and baby’s and
- high quality for safety
These qualities are what I am looking for when I choose which wraps to carry in my shop.
Choosing a Woven Wrap Brand for Safety
A high quality woven wrap is woven with hundreds of threads in the weave that creates an extremely strong fabric. Unlike with a knitted material, occasional broken threads in the wrap do not undermine the safety of the wrap and will not cause the weave to come undone in any way.
While mothers have always carried babies in any available material, manufacturing and selling baby carriers requires sterner safety standards to ensure that unsafe materials are not being sold for use with babies.
In the United States, the Consumer Protection Safety Commission requires thorough testing through government approved laboratories to ensure that any baby carrier is safe for carrying your baby.
You can still find untested carriers on amazon, etsy, and other shopping sites, but these are not technically legal to sell in the US. All of the wraps in the Wrap Your Baby store are fully tested and have Child Product Certificates.
All of my wraps in the Wrap Your Baby Shop have passed US safety standards (ASTM F2907) in a government approved laboratory.