Hooded Towel Tutorial

Hooded Towel Tutorial
Some people are very proactive and have already started a Flickr group dedicated to handmade holiday gifts. I created this tutorial way back in Oct. of last year, and I STILL haven’t posted it on my blog here. So it’s about time! I received one of these as a gift when I had my son, and I haven’t used a store bought hooded baby towel since. These work perfectly through the toddler years as well.

Materials You Need:
towel
wash cloth
thread
ribbon, buttons, or embellishments of your choice

(all photos are clickable to view larger)

If you are using buttons, skip this step and attach them after you’ve completed sewing the hood.

If you are using ribbon, the first step is to pin the ribbon in place over the decorative strip on the washcloth.

Stitch along close to the edges along both sides of the ribbon.

With right sides together (ribbon on the inside), fold the washcloth so that the back of of the hood will hang about an inch lower than the front.

Along the fold mark a point about 2" in. Mark a second point on the side, at the bottom of what will be the front of the hood. (marked here with pins)

This doesn’t have to be perfect and you can adjust the angle as you desire. Sew on either side of the washcloth between your marks. Sewing lines indicated by the red lines.

Turn hood right side out. On the inside, flatted out the seams just created and pin in place.

Sew down the seam in a triangle as shown. Repeat on other side.

Your hood is done! You should have a nice little pocket big enough for a child’s head.

Making the pleats in the towel:
Take your towel and fold it in half widthwise; mark the center.

You’re going to mark 4 more places for the pleats. The first mark is 1 1/2" from the center, and the next 3 marks will be 2" apart each.

I color coded my pins for the sake of ease. Now, match the first and second marks (white pins) to create the first pleat. Then match the 3rd and 4th marks (red pins) to create the second pleat.

Repeat this process on the other side of the towel so that you have 4 pleats, equally spaced, folded toward the center.

Baste into place by sewing close to the edge along the hem of the towel.

Pin the hood to the towel, inside of hood to the "back" of the towel, overlapping them just the amount of the washcloth hem.

[optional: you can sew a little loop in the center back of the hood when you attach it if you would like another way to hang the towel]

Sew close to the edge of the towel hem. You will be flipping it over and sewing a second line near the first.

Flip your towel over. We don’t want a little flap hanging off the back of the hood.

Sew a second line, close to the second, along the edge of the washcloth hem.

All done!