It’s so fun to make hammocks and swings with babywearing woven wraps! It’s a great way to break them in with some extra use, and kids LOVE to play in them. Making a hammock with a table and a wrap is a great safe way to make a rainy-day reading nook or just an area to relax. Put a blanket over teh table, and make it into a fort, if you’d like!

I’m making a woven babywearing wrap indoor swing soon – just bought the “ingredients.”

But for now, this is what we’ll be doing!

How to make a Babywearing Woven Wrap Hammock

How to make a woven wrap hammock - table hammock for kids - and win best mom ever status.

All you have to do is smooth out your wrap so there are no twists in it, and tie it around your dining room table using a secure square knot. I’m sure most toddlers could climb in on their own.

Anneliese is a bit hesitant about gross motor things, so she asked for help, but she had no trouble getting out when she wanted to. (She asked for help but I just told her, “Put your feet on the floor.” And she did it fine.)

Anneliese LOVED this! She called it her “Babar Hammock” because on the first page of the original Babar book, the elephant’s mother is rocking him in a hammock. I love that she made that connection to literature!

 

Make a woven wrap hammock for lots of rainy-day fun. Great kids indoor activity.

She also told me she was going to go “ninight” in it, and asked if I would nurse her in it. I told her I couldn’t nurse her in the hammock, and she was a little bit sad. It WOULD be comfy to just snuggle and nurse in a woven wrap hammock though. She’s got the right idea!

How to make a woven wrap hammock - tons of indoor rainy-day fun. Great kids' activity.

Stretchy wraps, sheets, and other fabrics are not ideal for making hammocks.

Only use a woven wrap, which is very strong fabric intended for carrying babies, toddlers, and small children. 

        

More great resources for How to Make a Woven Babywearing Wrap Hammock

Note: Several of these sites are now broken, or the posts have been removed, so I un-linked them. So sad you don’t get to see more woven wrap hammocks!

  • Baby Carriers Downunder also has a variation for smaller kids who need a deeper pouch for their hammocks, tying a knot at each side before tying the center square knot. Great idea!
  • BW of Peoria includes woven wrap hammocks in their post about how to break in your woven wrap. Their blog is full of really pretty pictures too!
  • Sling hammocks are also mentioned in The Mommy Dialogues in their “break in your wrap” post. Check out their cute picture over there too!
  • All Things Maverick also has some GREAT outdoor-wrap-hammock photos. So beautiful. If we had more trees, we could do that! They also have a How to Break in a Woven Wrap post which includes the hammock tip too.
  • Leslie on Flicker has a really cute wrap hammock photo too. It looks like she set it up in a playpen somehow!
  • You can see more woven wrap hammocks here on Slingmeet.

You may also be interested in these great natural parenting items:

        

THANK YOU to everyone who has sent this link to a friend, shared this link to my actual post on facebook (instead of copying and republishing the photo without permission), tweeted, pinned, commented on, and shared this post. I LOVE when you guys are as enthusiastic about an idea as I am and want to let other people know about my blog.

Often, these photos are shared on facebook without any context, and people speculate about how they can do it with a bedhsheet, some cheap fabric, or something else they have “lying around.” Other people gasp and declare that it’s an accident waiting to happen.

Well, let me clear up some things really quickly:

  1. It isn’t a bedsheet or a “cheap piece of fabric.” It is a woven wrap created for the sole purpose of holding babies and toddlers. It was designed to carry children.
  2. If it’s an “accident waiting to happen” you’re doing it wrong. Use common sense. Use a sturdy table. Test your knot before putting your kid in there. Stay close by, especially if your kids are really young. Take it down from the table when you (er, your kids) are finished playing with it.
  3. That particular wrap (since I’ve seen people ask in a lot of places) is Ellevill Zara Sun. It’s gorgeous and I’ve since cut it and turned part of it into a ring sling (the yellow sling in the background of the picture below). It has been discontinued for a while, but I’ve heard rumors that Ellevill will bring that color back… I hope so! Because I kind of want it as a wrap again (in addition to the sling, not turning back time).
  4. If you want to make a hammock OR a swing with fabric store fabric, please DO NOT use quilting cotton or “something from the dollar table at walmart.” A good bottomweight 100% linen will be great, or you can use cotton onsaburg (just make sure it seems thick enough to be supportive, as there IS thin onsaburg out there I wouldn’t feel would be safe).
  5. I know people have done the hammock thing with an old moby or boba wrap (stretchy wraps) but please don’t. Even though those were also meant to carry babies, they were also meant to ONLY be used with multiple passes over the child, and be on the front of mom where she has both hands nearby. It would be much easier for a kid to flip out of a stretchy hammock than a woven one – and have you ever seen any “real” hammocks that are stretchy material? Probably NOT.

This post was originally published in July 2012. It was updated in December 2015.

Want to see our Woven Babywearing Wrap Swing?

Woven Babywearing Wrap Swing - what a fun indoor winter activity!

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74 Comments

  1. Thanks! Cute ideas and explained well!!!

  2. […] How to Make a Woven Wrap Hammock – Making a fun den for the kids can take longer than you want it to and creates a huge mess which will take even more time to clear up. Save time with this super fun hammock idea! […]

  5. […] need to relax, too! Use a long sheet or blanket and tie it around a coffee table for a quick and adorable mini hammock. Now that’s the way to nap this […]

  14. […] Source: Joyful Abode […]

  17. Anyone figure out how she did the one in the pack n play? The pic is too close up to see.

  19. […] Cozy Hammock at Weranna’s (a cool interiors shop in Finland) 8) An easy DIY kid’s hammock – Wonderful idea! Don’t forget, a hammock is not complete without some cozy blankets […]

  23. […] How to Make a Woven Wrap Hammock ::: Joyful Abode […]

  26. […] How to Make a Woven Wrap Hammock | Joyful Abode via Bored Panda via Swissmiss […]

  27. […] How to Make a Woven Wrap Hammock | Joyful Abode via Bored Panda via Swissmiss […]

  28. […] How to Make a Woven Wrap Hammock | Joyful Abode via Bored Panda via Swissmiss […]

  29. […] photo : Joyful […]

  33. This is such an awesome idea! Do you think it would stretch out the wrap too much? I wonder if the wrap would still fit the same after. Thank you for sharing this! Pinning it now 🙂

    • If its a woven wrap it can’t stretch out. You can hold a grown adult in a woven wrap and be fine. Now, if it’s a stretchy wrap like a Moby then this isn’t the best idea.

  36. Hmm, wish I could do this with my Zara, but our table is round!

    • I have a round table and was thinking it would be perfect for this.

    • I wouldn’t recommend it. It would be much easier to fall out since the wrap is stretchy. Sorry!

  39. Hi! Thanks so much for this brilliant idea! I found it from a photo on Pinterest. I had an $8 hammock lying around and no trees in our yard to put it up. We went beyond the hammock and turned it into a clubhouse for my 4yo daughter. She’s got books, games, a lantern, stuffed animals – and is of course playing some apps while swinging in her new hammock! http://instagram.com/p/a90q6YLyCF/

    BIG THANKS.

    Jen

  40. […] Fuente y foto: Joyfulabole […]

  46. I know of a little girl who did this on her bunk bed and it killed her. She was doing it with her sister and her sister left the room and then it happened. She was like 10 or 12 at the time. Just a reminder to stay with little ones if you do this.

    • There are risks to everything. I think you just have to weigh the risks and decide.
      I doubt my supervised 2 year old is going to die from playing in a hammock 2 inches from the floor…
      But that is very unfortunate for your friend’s family.

  47. […] day or two prior to this particular day, I had pinned this blog post How to Make a Woven Wrap Hammock thinking it might come in handy at some […]

  48. Does this effect your wrap in any way?

    • Yes. It helps break it in and make it softer! It’s great to do and makes wrapping with the wrap even more comfy and enjoyable.

  51. Can you use a sheet for fun do you think? Or would that not be long enough?

    • I would not use a sheet. A woven wrap is meant to hold the weight of a child. A sheet is not.

      • Sheet isn’t as long as a wrap but would be plenty strong enough — my DIY Moby wrap is a twin sheet halved lengthwise and sewn end to end.

  52. i’m a grandma, this would be a fun thing to do with the Gkids but how much fabric does this use? i know i can go to the fabric store to buy yardage but i would know how much. help.

    • If you’re doing a DIY version, you can get 5-6 yards of onsaburg fabric or another substantial woven fabric.

  53. I have a Didymos Katja I need to pull back out and try this with! The kids would love it! Hopefully it’ll work for my older kids too! BTW, what wrap is this? It’s beautiful! I LOVE that yellow!

  54. This is absolutely adorable. Makes me wish that I had kept my woven wrap after all. I just couldn’t get into wrapping and ended up selling it. (I’m a sling/meitai/ergo kind of girl.)

  55. This is such a great idea, shame we don’t have a suitable table 🙁

    • Bummer! I’ve seen people tie it between crib slats before, like corner to corner in the crib… not sure where else you could tie it.

  57. […] hit the hot summer season, my thoughts have turned to hammocks and wading pools. Love this indoor hammock DIY by Joyful Abode (also a great way to get some more use out of the old baby […]

  58. totally blogging about this so awesome love your blog putting a button to it on my blog.

  59. I am so sad I sold my woven wrap now. Do you think the gauze wraps you make would work as well? That is my only non-stretchy wrap left.

    • Mamatha tried with a gauze wrap and it sagged a lot… they aren’t really substantial so I wouldn’t have thought it would work well. But I bet just a length of (not super thin) linen or something would work, if you don’t have any woven wraps anymore! You could check the sales at fabric stores 🙂

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