February | 2016 | Sling Sally

Manufacturer – TwinGo Carrier

Retail price of tested design and size – £179.95

Provided to me by – Koala Slings

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We had a twingo carrier come and visit for a few weeks recently and I loved it, both as a twin carrier, but also as a tandem carrier for differently aged/sized babies and children. There has very clearly been a lot of thought gone into the design of the TwinGo to make it work in different ways and in different situations.

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The Twingo can be used either as one carrier that carries two babies, one on front and one on the back (if there is a weight difference of 3lbs or more the heavier baby goes on the back), or as two separate carriers used on either the front or back, so that two parents/caregivers could share the carrying, or easily swap back to one carrying both babies as needed. The Twingo comes as two carriers, the base and attachment carriers, and both pack down neatly into their own integral storage bags. These are also colour coded both on the bags and the sleep hoods for easy recognition. When in use as carriers, these bags provide handy and spacious storage compartments for nappies, muslins etc. The waist band is well padded and structured without being overly rigid, and when both carriers are in use together, this support extended the whole way around my size 14 waist. The shoulder straps have a generous level of padding to help comfortably spread the weight of two babies/children. There are also safety elastic loops on the buckles for extra security.

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I was very impressed with how easy such a versatile carrier was to use. As individual carriers the base carrier is ready to go just like other buckled carrier options. The attachment carrier has straps to buckle on the make it work as a stand alone carrier, but these fit in the integral storage bag with plenty of space, so you don’t need to carry them around separately or remember to pack them for a trip out. Using the Twingo to tandem carry front and back was impressively easy to set up – you just buckle the waist bands to each other so you have the base carrier on the back and the attachment carrier on the front (without the additional straps for solo carrier use). Put one baby on your back by whichever method you prefer (a hip scoot is a great method to start with), adjust the shoulder straps to be comfortable and fasten the chest strap. Then the second baby goes on the front, with the use of the safety strap, and the panel clips directly onto the shoulder straps from the base carrier. By having both carriers attaching to one set of shoulder straps this is much easier for the wearer to use and get comfortable, as you can easily move this one strap to your comfortable carrying position, and much easier than would be possible if you were using two separate buckled carriers and therefore had four shoulder straps to contend with. The shared waist band also makes for a much more comfortable carrying experience than two separate waist bands and buckles would if you were using two separate buckled carriers.

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During the Twingo’s visit with us it attended some sling library meets as well as being tested by myself. Everyone who tried it was impressed with how easy it was to use and how comfortable they found it – I believe one lovely lady with twins even got one for Christmas. As I’ve mentioned above I was very impressed with the design and thought that’s gone into the Twingo, along with how easy it was to use as a tandem carrier or two solo carriers. I found the waistband to provide a nice level of support and it was nice to have this support extending the whole way round when tandem carrying. The shoulder straps were lovely and padded and I can see them remaining comfortable even with two larger children in the carrier.

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Overall, I think the Twingo is an excellent carrier and by far the best buckled tandem carrier that I’ve seen. Some people may be put off by the price, but if you think of it as two separate ergonomic buckled carriers (which if you wanted to tandem carry in buckles you would need anyway), then it’s actually pretty averagely priced, and it’s well worth the money with all the thought and design features that have gone into the Twingo.

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Manufacturer – Almitra Tattva

Design – Tattva collection

Colour – Aruna

Blend – 100% cotton

Width of wrap – 69cm

Size tested – 6

Retail price of tested design and size – 80 USD (approx £55 at time of writing)

Provided to me by – Almitra Tattva

Website – Almitra Tattva

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Initial thoughts on design, colour and feel

Aruna arrived from India in a lovely matching bag, made from the same wrap material, which is a lovely touch and a great way to safely store and transport your wrap. There are several different colourways of the Tattva collection and Aruna is a lovely deep red and black. The design is beautifully delicate and I can see ferns and flowers interlaced with swirls, separated into columns by widthwise bars. The most striking thing for me when I first handled the wrap was how soft it was, straight out of the bag, and it is one of the softest new wraps I’ve used. It lost a little of this softness after its first wash but regained it quickly after a couple of uses. It’s also a very thin and lightweight wrap so is very floppy and flexible, and is so thin that when you hold it up to the light you can see the light shining through it. This would make it a great warm weather option, for holidays or hotter climates than a UK winter (I popped a coat over the both of us when walking outside as we tested in December and January). It is a blunt ended wrap (no tapers), but thanks to the flexibility of the wrap there was no issue tying knots. The edges are selvedges like many handwoven wraps, rather than hemmed as with most machine woven wraps, although Aruna is Jacquard machine woven, so this adds a nice individual touch to the brand.

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Carrying thoughts

Aruna is a very thin wrap and is very flexible, so it it wraps well around the wearer and child’s body, moulding to fit their individual shapes. The downside to this thinness is that if you don’t take care when forming your carry then I found it could be a little diggy in places. When testing I always try a ruck with just bunching the shoulder passes as this is where I find pressure points can occur if they are going to. Aruna did cause some pressure with bunched shoulder straps, however as with other thinner wraps this was easily rectified by sandwiching the shoulders to provide a wider spread and more even weight distribution. I have not found this to be uncommon with lighter weight wraps,, and you get benefits from the thinness so it just something to take into account. Personally I found Aruna was more suited to multi layer back carries such as a double hammock as this distributes the child’s weight over a greater amount of the wearer’s body. It is also worth mentioning that I put Aruna to the test with two year old Reu, so with a younger baby you may not find the need to take extra care in this way when wrapping. So, I can say this wrap is toddler worthy with a few extra little tweaks to wrapping technique. I also carried toddler Reu in a front wrap cross carry, and found it most comfortable to really spread the back passes for extra support. The open nature of the weave did result in a pull while I was testing it, but the openness also made it the easiest pull to fix I’ve ever done (if you’re worried about fixing pulls there are videos on YouTube and once you’ve learnt they really aren’t much of a problem to fix at all).

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Overall thoughts

Overall, I think Aruna is a beautiful design, and the colours available are all lovely. The price makes this a more affordable option than many other wrap brands (although be aware you may have a customs charge to pay). The softness would be lovely against even newborn skin, and with a little attention this wrap could see you through to your toddler wearing days. This would be a brilliant wrap for hotter weather, to keep both you and your little one cooler than you would be in most other wraps, but is not restricted to hot weather use. Having had a look through Almitra Tattva’s website I was impressed with the variety of options from a relatively new company, and especially impressed by the look and price of their wrap conversion Mei Tais (sale prices start at 64 USD – about £45).

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