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

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.

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).

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).