Gathered Shoulder

This simple style is the most common type of ring sling on the market today, is the easiest to sew, and is comfortable for most body types. The loose style allows the wearer to customize how much the fabric spreads across the back and shoulder.

This style can take longer to put on that a pleated shoulder, and may tend to spread further down the arm, limiting range of motion and potentially causing discomfort.

We currently offer a wide variety of gathered shoulder ring slings from various manufactures.

Pleated Shoulder

Sewn pleats provide more structure and allow the fabric to spread easily along the stitched lines. The fabric is narrower at the rings than a gathered or hybrid style, but the fabric spreads evenly across your back.
There are several different styles of pleated shoulders available, but many of the items in our lending library are the “Signature Style Pleat” produced by Sleeping Baby Productions. You will also find spread pleats in our Lil’ Peepers Keepers Slings. This style is often preferred by those with a smaller frame or shoulders.

Hybrid Shoulder

This style is a nice hybrid between the Gathered and Pleated options. The Eesti style shoulder was created and named by Karen Hoppis and is licensed to Sleeping Baby Productions.

Most of our hybrid style shoulders are Eesti and have small pleats on each side which give some structure, while the gathered center section allows flexibility in the fabric width across your shoulder and back. The gathered section allows the wearer to customize the width and how much the fabric spreads across their back.