I'm making a tutorial for this hooded towel because I want to remember how I made the one above for a friend's baby shower. I just love using actual bath towels as the hooded towel material because they are so much more absorbent than the ones the stores sell. And they're softer and warmer! All very important qualities. Although this is mostly for my purposes, if you want to make one yourself, feel free to follow the steps I went through below.
What you'll need:Bath Towel
Hand Towel
Ribbon (at least as long as the width of the hand towel; this is also optional)
matching thread
straight pins
sewing machine
Step 1: Cut the hand towel in half across the width. If you are using ribbon, sew it to the end of the towel with the finished edges, opposite of the raw end you created by cutting the towel.
As you can see in my picture above, I cut my ribbon a little short for the width of my towel. If possible, cut the ribbon to extend the entire width.
Also, some hand towels will have a decorative "trim" a couple inches inside of the edge- you can place your ribbon on top of the trim to make it look more organized. If you feel the preexisting decorative "trim" is too far from the edge of the towel, you can fold over the end of the towel to make it closer and stitch it in place (just make sure to add the length you folded under to the raw edge you cut- i.e. don't cut the towel until you adjust where the trim is).
Step 2: Lay your towels "right side down". This means that the tag on the bath towel will be facing upward (I suggest placing the tag towards the bottom of the towel so it doesn't end up in baby's face) and the ribbon on the hand towel will be facing down. Fold both towels in half width-wise to find the center. Mark the center with pins. Line the pins up and pin the towels together, with the right sides together.
Something I just thought of- if it makes it easier, have you bath towel facing right side up and the hand towel facing wrong side down. Just keep in mind that my bath towel is not going to look exactly like what you are doing, but it will turn out the same way.
Step 3: Take the left side of your hand towel and fold it over as if you were folding a letter into thirds.
Step 4: Next, take the top right corner of the edge you just folded over and bring it down so you are aligning the preexisting finished edges of the towel. Pin in place. Continue pinning the edges together until you get something like this:
(You can't see it very well in the picture, but there should be a triangular fold towards the center of the bath towel where the hand towel was folded back on to itself.)
Step 5: Repeat this process with the right edge of the hand towel. Fold it over so that your new crease matches up with the corner of the left side of the hand towel.
Fold the towel back onto itself by pulling the top left-hand corner of the right flap down and aligning the preexisting edges up. Pin into place. You should be left with something like this:
And when you fold the hood over, it should look something like this:
Step 6: Now, sew the edges together using your sewing machine. I used probably about a 1/2 inch seam allowance. Go slowly and be patient because there are a lot of layers to make it through. Make sure none of the layers slip from where you are sewing. Now go back and make a second seam between the edge and the first seam you made. This will reinforce the seam and make the towel more durable. Clip your loose threads and voila!
Now you have a hooded towel that will help keep your baby or toddler dry, warm and comfortable when you take them out of the bath or swimming pool!
