Hooded Baby bath towel

I just finished making two more hooded bath towels.

My cousin, Cynthia, made the first one for my daughter Lauren when she was born.

 They used them for years, and years & YEARS!!

  Can you tell?

I used that one as a pattern to make one for Preston when he was a wee little one.

I have made MaNy of these as gifts over the years.

Remember this post when we crafted things for my Grand-One-to-Be?
We even made our own pattern for a newborn size.

Do you want to learn how to make the full-sized one?

You are in luck... I was wanting to practice with my camera so I took step-by-step pictures.  

Here goes nothin'...

First...you put your iTunes on some peppy music...I was in the mood for some
music I had purchased, then I moved onto music from my teens!
Love those tunes from the 70's & 80's!

You will need 1 regular size bath towel, one washcloth, ribbon - widths depend on your personal choice...not ribbon with wire and you should use something that will stand up to many washings, matching thread for ribbon and towel/washcloth.

Ok, the 1st real step is to cut off that pesky, scratchy tag off of your washcloth.

...about 1 1/2 inches from the edge of the washcloth, 

pin your ribbon onto the right side of the cloth.

You can leave the ends extended on either side because you will cut them off and

 they will be in the seams of the hood.

Sew close to the edge on either side of the ribbon.

I roll up the excess on the washcloth and towel when I'm sewing the other side.

Trim the excess ribbon off of each end, you are now ready to make the hood.

Right sides together, fold the end with the ribbon down about 4 inches.  Pin on the side.

Then measure over about 1 1/4 inches on the fold and mark that with a pin.

See the diagonal line when you connect the pin points?  That will be your sewing line...
you could probably mark it, but I just eyeball it.

Be careful when you get to the end...the bulk of fabric 

has caused me to break a needle or two.

Go slow...

Can you see the triangles that were made?

You are going to trim close to your seam line to remove the bulk.

The cloth should look like this.

I like to zig zag the ends together so there won't be any fraying and it lays flat.

Once you have zigged and zagged your seam together, turn the hood to the right side.
This is how it should look.

You are now ready to sew the ribbon on the towel.  Sometimes the towels have a 'border'.
If it does, I center my ribbon in that border.  This towel didn't have a border,
so I measured 5" from the bottom of the towel to the bottom of my ribbon.

This is what you will do with the ends of the ribbon.  Leave a little excess on each side.

Fold it under and pin.  Sew down both sides of your ribbon like you did on your washcloth.

When you are done...there is a little tunnel.  

I like to sew down the ends of the ribbon to the towel

so there are no chances of it getting hooked on something and ripping.

Sew down close to the edge of the towel catching the ribbon in the seam.

Do the same thing for the ribbon on the other end of the towel...go ahead, I'll wait.
Now that the ribbon is done, let's add the hood to the towel.
Mark the center of your towel.

Mark the center of your washcloth.  We will need to do a little more to the washcloth
before we attach it...

You are going to make a little pleat.  So, working on the wrong side, from the center of your washcloth about 2 1/2" over, bring that 2 1/2" to 1 1/4" and fold the rest to the center of the washcloth.  It will be like a double fold...
Does that make sense?

Do the same thing on the other side...

It should look like this.

Now, put your machine on your basting stitch.  You are going to baste over these folds to hold them in place.  Makes it easier to attach the cloth to the towel if you have less pins.

Once you baste the edges down, it will look like this.

This is what it looks like from the right side, back of the hood.

same thing...bigger view.

Now you are ready to attach the hood & towel.

 Lay the back side of the hood where you pleated it onto the wrong side of the towel,
overlapping about 1 1/4".  I pin the center and then I pin each end.

 This is how I have it pinned.  You can see that I also pinned the pleat up to hold it in place while I sew the hood onto the towel.  You are now ready to sew the hood to the towel.
I like to sew around the outside edges of the washcloth first.

It is VERY thick where all the edges of the washcloth meet in the middle, so go slow and try not to break a needle.  I did it twice while making these towels this summer.  :(

After I finish sewing around the outside edges, I remove the pins (leaving the pins in holding the pleat) and then flip the towel over.  I pin the back of the towel in place and then sew the straight seam across the top near the edge of the towel.

Remove all pins...don't want a baby getting poked!

That is it!  You are done!  It's that simple.

I can make one of these in 15 to 30 minutes now.  Super simple project!

I hope this made sense to you...if not, just ask me your question in the comment section.
Let me know if you make one or two!
Link back to here so I can see if you blog it!
These make great gifts for babies or toddlers!!
Our kids used theirs for a LONG time!

HaPpY SeWiNg!!