I’m Antonia, owner of Melliapis. I have been making slings for over 10 years and in that time, I have made well over a thousand slings and baby carriers. I have been sewing for much longer than this though, in fact since I was at school, where I made my own clothes for my dolls and teddies and moved onto making my own outfits.

Our name came from the initials of my two sons and my husband, B, E and E, we are from Manchester and the worker bee is symbolic for the city. I had thought about Honeybee Slings initially but wanted something a little different so looked up the latin name for a honey bee and it is Apis mellifera (bee honey-gathering) so Melliapis (pronounced Melly-appis) is the literal translation of Honeybee. The signature topstitching on our carriers represents the waggle dance that bees do to show other bees where the best flowers are.