Tutorial: Hooded Towels (for toddlers)

Did you buy towels at Walmart on Black Friday?  Don't lie.

Well, if you did (or didn't *wink wink*) and ended up going a little crazy and got more than you needed (what am I saying, nobody does that on Black Friday...) then this is the tutorial for you!  I actually got my towels a couple of weeks before for a couple dollars more with the intent to make some Christmas presents for the boys and my nephews.  They're SOOO much better than the thin baby ones they sell and are much bigger and cuter because you can use whatever fabric you want for an accent strip on the hood.  I must have googled for three days for hooded towel tutorials, but could never find one that I felt I could follow through completely without changing anything.  A lot of them called for cutting the hand towel (which is used to make the hood) in half.  Mmmm, yeah, not gonna work.  I went to The Children's Place a few weeks back when they had a fleece sale and had to get Landon a size 8-12 because the 4T cut off circulation to his brain.  The kid's got a big head.  When I made my hooded towel, I opted to use the entire towel (minus a few inches) so he had some room.  It's a bit big on Carson, but we're able to find him under all the fluffy goodness so it's all okay.

What you need to make your own toddler-sized hooded towel:

1 bath towel
1 hand towel
A bit of scrap fabric (~15" x 4")

First I took the hand towel:

and cut off the decorative side and the strip on the other end (it would've added bulk), like so:

then I folded the towel in half (so the fold is on the right), like this:

and turned it so the fold is on top, and cut off the strip on the right, as well

as rounding the top, like so:

then I unfolded the towel, and folded the bottom edge (which is the front of the hood) 

up about three inches:

I also cut off that edge strip once I folded it to where I wanted, but I forgot to take a picture.  You don't see it once you add your fabric trim, but I could feel the bulkiness under the fabric and it bugged me, so I snipped it.

Lay out your fabric trim, making sure that the edge if the hand towel (that is folded over) falls in the middle underneath the trim.  Fold over the fabric edges by 1/4"-1/2" (your preference) and top stitch.  Cut any remaining excess that hangs off the side of the towel, if necessary:

Fold your towel back into the original hood shape we cut out:

I chose to do french seams on this project because I wanted them to look as nice as possible.  If you don't  know what a french seam is, it's where the fabric is first sewn wrong sides together, THEN right sides together to hide the raw seams.  It definitely gives a more professional look.  So, wrong sides together, then sew.  (Zig zag on a sewing machine, or serge):

Flip the hood inside out so that right sides are facing, and sew with a 3/8"-1/2" seam allowance so that your original zig zag or serged seam is incased.  If you're new to french seams, 1/2" will give you a little wiggle room (plus, the hood is large enough to where an extra 1/8" won't make a difference):

Now turn your hood right side out:

I don't have a picture for this step but I did draw a diagram.  Most solid towels don't have a right or a wrong side so fold your towel in half and mark the fold (I did this by pressing the fold to create a crease), then unfold the towel.  Laying the hood with the outside (the fabric side) facing you, match up the center seam with the middle of the bath towel.  Pin the hood along the bath towel on both sides of the seam, then zig zag or serge the edges:

which will end up looking like this:

Once that's done, flip the hood in the other direction (so that the side with the strip of fabric is facing the towel) and topstitch 3/8"-1/2" to encase the original seam:

which will result in this:

See how much better it looks on the inside with those french seams??  Much nicer than looking at raw edges.  The extra time is worth it.  I think I was able to knock this out in about 30 minutes, and this was my first one.  There's no real measuring or ironing involved, and the the towel is very forgiving - the only real issue I had was bulk, but I assume since most of you out there reading this have two hands, you won't have any issues with helping to feed the towel through your machine.

And, uh, since Landon is pure model material, I was able to get a few pictures of the towel in action:

Why is it that the hardest part of any project is getting your kids to show it off for you so you can snap a couple pics?  I mean, I only took maybe thirty pictures before I got the "that's enough, Mom."  Sheesh.  You carry them for nine months, feed them, shelter them...is a few pictures too much to ask??  I think not.

In any case, I hope you found the tutorial easy to follow to allow extra room for your big-headed kiddos.  There are quite a few tutorials out there so even if mine doesn't entirely cut it (no pun intended), I hope that you can do what I did and take bits and pieces from it and find something that works for you.  If you've got any questions, please ask!