Hooded Towel Tutorial

We are having a lot of baby showers around here and I am famous for this hooded towel.  I recieved one years ago from a friend when I had my first child and even though my chiild is 5 now she still uses the one she made her and the other ones I have made her and her brother.  So because I know people want to know how to make one for their kids I decided to take pictures last time and do a tutorial.

Materials list (for one hooded towel.)

• one hand towel
• one bath towel
• one spool of 1 to 1 1/2 inch ribbon (about 9 feet long)

The HOW TO:
1.  To start you need to cut the hand towel in half or cut off 11 inches ( if it is much longer the hood part starts to look funny.)

2.  Take your ribbon and measure up 3 inches from the finished edge of the hand towel and pin and then sew on.

3. Sew your hand towel together with the ribbon on the inside and sew together the cut (unfinished edge).  You can either serge this edge or you can sew it then go next to it with a zigzag.  {Otherwise the fuzzies will attack and quite possibly your seam may come undone.}

4.  Next take the bath towel and measure 6 inches up from the edge and sew your ribbon in place.

5.  Then next part is probably the most difficult to explain.  {If your machine does not like sewing over 3(actually 4 once I went and counted) layers of towel then the best thing to do is just find the middle and sew the hood to the towel with right sides together.  It actually works just fine and is also a better size for older children.}  If your sewing machine is a workhorse and can sew threw all kinds of things then go for this next step.
Start with the center of the bath towel - and the center of your hood (where the seam is).  Pin those together.

(I forgot to take a picture of that step but you can see the red pin - it marks the center of both pieces.)

6.  Then measure from that CENTER point out 3 inches - then fold back the towel about one inch (I'm never that good at measuring this).  Then go about 1 to 1 1/2 inches and then fold the towel back again.  Do this once more. (so you have 3 pleates)

7. Repeat going the other way (see picture from number 5)  Pin the ends of the hood against the bath towel.  Then put on your safety glasses (kind of kidding, but sometimes I break needles on this part) and sew.   Go slow and sew it with a double stitch to make sure it is secure and won't come apart after you wash it.   {If you chose to not do the cute pleats then you would just sew the hood to the towel at this part.}

Then turn it around and after much struggling with your sewing machine and worries about needles breaking you have a cute hooded towel that goes from baby to small child.  Here is my gracious model who always asks me . . . "Is this mine?"  {It's pink after all.}

{So since you cut the hooded towel in half it is always good to get a second bath towel and more ribbon and make two at a time.  Then you are ready for the next baby shower, unless it is a boy. . . hee!  hee!}

Edited:
I made a couple for boys and since boys things can be sometimes boring I chose to add a little design when I put the ribbon on.

These were the same towels and ribbon, I just put the orange on one because I wanted it to pop.  Plus I have a thing for blue, orange and brown. . . maybe one day I will do my boy's room in those colors.

Here are my children modeling the two different towels.

ORANGE ZIGZAG                                                                                                   BLUE ZIGZAG