August 28, 2013

Hooded Towel and Bath Mitt Tutorial

There's nothing worse than trying to wrap up a wet, squiggly baby with a small, poorly absorbing towel.  Am I right?  One of the best gifts we received were some beautiful hooded towels adorned with ribbon and lace and embroidery.  As pretty and fancy as they are, I really just needed more big, fluffy hooded towels to get the job done once Audrey got too big for her baby towels.  So I ran to Walmart, bought two bath towels and one hand towel and made up some big girl towels for Audrey.

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With two little girls at bath time now, I've needed to make some more hooded towels, so I took pictures as I went in case you'd like to make some, too!

What you need:

2 full size bath towels
1 hand towel
matching thread
sewing machine
scissors
pins

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(I used 2 bath towels and 2 hand towels so they would match)

1.  Fold your hand towel in half like a hamburger (not a hot dog...) and cut it into 2 halves.

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2. Make the hood:  Fold one half of the hand towel in half with wrong sides together, matching up the cut edges and sew a straight line with a 1/2" seam allowance along the short raw edge.    I like to go back and zig zag the raw edge as well.

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3. Turn the hood right side out and poke out the point of the hood with a knitting needle.

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4.  Find the center of the towel (long-wise) and the center of the bottom of the hood and pin them together with about 1 inch overlapping.  Make sure the pretty side of the bath towel is facing you and the back of the hood faces you, too.  I like the overlap because it gives some strength to the joined towels.

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5.  Using a zig zag stitch, sew along the four sides of the rectangle created by the joining of the hood and towel with the 1" overlap.

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 I usually do the edge along the bath towel first, then flip it over and do the 2 short sides and the edge of the hand towel next.

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6.  Wrap up your wet little one and snuggle!

You can always pretty these up with trim or fabric!

I found these fluffy striped bath towels at Walmart and bought a bath towel and hand towel of each color so they could each have the stripes.  There was plenty of towel left over to make a couple of bath mitts to add to our wash cloth collection!

1.  Fold the towel in half with right sides together and trace your hand with a fabric marker.  Be sure to add a 1" seam allowance and flare out quite a bit at the wrist to give your hand room to go in.

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2.  Pin the pieces together and cut out along your line.

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3.  Sew the pieces together with a 1/2" seam allowance, leaving the bottom open.  Zig zag around the outside.

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4.  Turn right side out and scrub a dub dub!

2 comments:

Whitney Weir said...

So glad you did this! I've been meaning to make some myself, but there are a million tutorials. Love the stripes on the towels. Must do now!

Unknown said...

awesome ideas i love them