The Polish brand Natibaby is not here for the first time, not even second or third time. This time we have triple review for you – two all-cotton wraps and a blended one with linen. Hereby we want to thank for the opportunity to test these wraps our dear fellow babywearers from our regional babywearing group in case of the Parrots and Starry Night and the Facebook group Nosíme děti (i.e. We wear our babies) in case of Swallows.
Natibaby Parrots
Composition: 100 % cotton
Weight: 344 g/m²
Size: 7
Front wrap cross carry (reinforced)
I realized one thing during this testing – Natibaby wraps are obviously long – like VERY long, so long that they are actually one size longer than than indicated by the manufacturer. The was supposed to be a size 6 and it turned out to be a proper size 7 (I measured 525 cm STIH) – of course, much better situation than the opposite one, I admit. My only concern is that inexperienced babywearers who do not usually measure their wraps could be confused a bit.
The other thing I realized – I got the wrap in my hands almost totally new, unlike other Natibaby wraps before – the tags with the safety instructions are brutally big, as you can see in the photo! Although they are sewn quite losely and are probably meant to be removed, I cannot help the feeling of “eeew”.
And finally, the third thing I realized is that Natibaby really knows how to make a good all-cotton wrap. I was left quite unimpressed by Nellette which I found a bit too thick and too little pliable for my taste (however, my feelings could be different today with my kid being heavier than a year ago) and I was not particularly intrigued by the linen 3Dimensional, nor Colibri, either. But this cotton! The Parrots were new, almost straight out of the box and there was not really much to break in. Very pleasant, pliable, well cooperating while tying and holding in the carry in one knot (if you look closer on the detail photos it is visible that the colourful parts of the wraps are more rough than the white parts – therefore the wrap has a very good grip, just as I like it). A big plus is that it is easy-care – the wrap does not wrinkle much and does not seem prone to pulls at all. As to the function, a great working wrap indeed.
As far as its looks go – I like wraps with animals but not such realistic animals… I must admit that I liked the “abstract” wrong side of the wrap more where the parrots are not really distinguishable. 😀
Natibaby Starry Night Blue
Composition: 100 % cotton
Weight: 317 g/m²
Size: 6
Semi-front wrap cross carry with Poppins finish
Starry Night, together with the Sunflowers, is probably the most well-known Van Gogh’s painting and therefore not only the “classic” among the art reproduction, but also a classic among the Natibaby wraps. It is remarkable that the Starry Night wraps have already been released in numerous variations as to the colour (different shades of blue, brown, violet etc.), blend or weight; there is 29 variants in the Slingofest.com database but it is possible that the number is even higher because, to be honest, Slingofest.com is not always exact.
I will not dispute the artistic qualities of one of the most classic impressionistic pieces of art, that would not even be possible, but to be honest I do not really feel the urge to wear it as a wrap.
Similar to the Parrots the Starry Night was supposed to be a size 5, but turned out to be size 6 as I measured it; 479 cm to be exact. However, compared to the Parrots it is quite narrow (only 60 cm). Everything else is to be praised, same as in case of the Parrots – a very pleasant, high-weight cotton piece, not slippery, perfectly pliable, well cooperating, holding tight in the carry and comfortable on the shoulders even with a heavy toddler. If not for the width there would basically be anything to reproach about this wrap’s tying properties, although it seems a bit more prone to pulls than the Parrots – probably because of the pattern (and because of the pattern and the colours it is not easy to repair the pulls).
Natibaby Swallows
Composition: 70 % cotton, 30 % linen
Weight: 272 g/m²
Size: 6
Back wrap cross carry with a chest belt
Swallows is the identical wrap as Colibri which I tested this winter. The only difference is that it is longer and, well, much more beautiful, at least in my eyes, because I love blue (unlike violet) – and this really is a gorgeous shade of blue! Combined with the blue-grey it looks very elegant (and matches Emilka’s eyes) and the swallows’ silhouettes are exactly the type of design I like in wraps.
Otherwise it is not the wrap of my dreams – same as Colibri it is very soft, flannel-smooth and pliable, but it felt too slippery while tying and it took quite a lot of effort to make it stay in the carry as I wanted. And similarly to the Colibri wrap its tendency to wrinkle is almost unbelievable – taken how old the wrap is (I could not find the date of the release but I suppose it has been quite a few years and that it has been tested by quite a few wearers) it is broken in through by through – no one can tell me anymore that linen “does not wrinkle that much” after being broken-in. This one wrinkles that much that it almost made me cry while ironing it – if it was not a tester wrap I would send it forward in a blink of an eye.
