How to make a hooded towel, so easy!

This is one of my all time favorite things that my mother in law has taught me! She gave me one when I had my first baby and I fell in love with them and have been making them for baby shower gifts, and for my own babies ever since!

You will need

A bath towel

coordinating wash cloth (or for bigger kids, a hand towel)

Sewing machine

coordinating thread

sewing scissors

pins

a cute baby to wrap in the towel when you are done

We have used hand towels for making them as the kids get older. These are great at the pool, where the child might feel cold coming out of the water and they can curl up in the hooded towel for a bit. Of course,they are also great for bath time too. I meant to buy a washcloth for the one I was making today but accidentally got a hand towel. Which would be fine, but I bought it for a baby gift and those are way too big for babies! Also, I bought them on vacation at IKEA so there was no returning to get the right size. Oops. So be careful to get the correct size when buying them. You can also check out Your Guide to Bath Time and Baby Bath Products for more baby care tips.

Begin by cutting off any tags that might be on the towels. The side with the tag will be your “wrong side” when you turn it wrong side out. Once the tags are cut off,turn the washcloth or hand towel wrong side out, fold it in half so the short sides are together and pin along the edge of one of the long sides. My picture didn’t show this well, so if you have your long rectangle, and fold it in half short sides together. you will not pin it closed on the ends you just folded, but one of the other 2 open sides. make sense?

Now that it is sewn there, turn it right side out again. You should have a square with the back side, and the side you just sewed meeting making a corner like this. That still leaves you 2 open sides.

Now the side with the edging of the washcloth (where you folded them together to begin with) will be folded over, just a little bit, this is your judgment. For a larger hand towel I do about 3 inches where for a wash cloth you want to leave the room there. so an inch-inch and a half should be good.

Once you have that folded over you will now only have the one side left. This should be the side that is opposite the top (the half fold). Pin this last open side to the wrong side of the bath towel. To make sure you have it centered, fold your bath towel in half. Lay your wash cloth inside the bath towel so that the side you sewed on the washcloth is the back and matches up with the middle fold of the bath towel. Now pin together. Do not pin all 4 pieces together. You will sew it shut if you try that. Pin around so that they both still open, like a cape.

Sew them together. When you get to the back, with the layering it may catch on your machine. Just guide it through gently. This is pretty easy to sew straight here. I simply follow the edge of the towel as my guide. If you line it up and follow that, it should have a nice, straight seam when it is done.

Once that is sewn, you are done! Now all that is left to do is wrap it around your freshly bathed kiddo!

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