Hooded Bath Towel

Whether it's at the beach or in a pool, kids love to swim! Make their day in the water even more fun by creating a fanciful hooded towel to dry them off and wrap them up for the car ride home. They'll love to pretend that they're an animal in the forest!

Supplies & Materials:

Project Materials or Supplies
- a bath towel

- a hand towel

- 1/3 yard of lining fabric

- 1 package of quilt binding or extra wide, double-fold bias tape

More materials & supplies

- Ear/fin pattern for the Bear, Lion, Bunny, or Shark - Click link below to download
- Small piece of low-loft batting for the face
- Heavy fish line or button and carpet thread for whiskers or fusible batting or heavy interfacing for the shark's fin

Download Project Pattern

The designs used in this tutorial include:

- A4413, Bunny Face

Gather Materials:

On one long half of the hand towel, sew out the hoodie face design. I sewed mine in the center of the towel, but I found I would have had more fabric to work with if I had sewn it so the edge of the design was about 1/2" from the woven decoration on the towel.

Yellow hooded bath towel with embroidered pink and white cartoon heart-shaped face with eyes and nose in the center, laid flat on a black background.

Cut the towel in half lengthwise so that you have 2 long rectangles. Set one rectangle aside. From the other rectangle, cut out a 9" wide by 7 1/2" rectangle and the ear pieces applicable for your animal. Make sure that the embroidered area retains at least 1/2" of fabric around its perimeter.

Trim the corners of the small rectangle, making diagonal cuts about 2 1/2" long.

Unassembled cream-colored toweling pieces on a black background, including a long rectangle, a rounded rectangle, and two symmetrical glove-like shapes.

Start Embroidering:

From the lining fabric, cut out rectangles that are the same size as the rectangles that you cut from the hand towel.

Yellow hooded bath towel with a pink hood featuring green and light pink frog patterns, displayed on a black background.

Constructing the ears (or shark fin) and hood

On each ear piece, encase the outside curved edges with the bias tape or quilt binding.

For the shark: Cut out the fin pieces from the towel or lining fabric. Fuse the interfacing or batting to the wrong side of each fin piece. Place the pieces with the wrong sides together and baste the sides together, but not the bottom. Encase the sides of the fin with bias tape or quilt binding.

Two green and white checkered fabric strips shaped in an elongated heart, placed on a yellow towel and frog-printed background fabric.

Attach each ear to the smaller rectangle piece by stitching the unbound end of each ear to the short diagonal cut corners of the rectangle.

Yellow hooded bath towel with green and white gingham fabric trim along the edges and hood, displayed flat on a black background.

Stitch the long rectangle to 3 sides of the small rectangle using a 1/2" seam allowance. Leave one long side (the one without the ears) of the small rectangle open. This will form the hood of the towel.

Hand holding a soft yellow hooded towel with pale green trim, shown inside out against a black background.

Making the face

Lay the batting down first, then a backing piece cut from either the towel or the lining fabric. The right side should be up. Then lay the embroidery on the top with the right side down.

Square piece of yellow terry fabric with an embroidered pink heart-shaped animal face with eyes, nose, and mouth, bordered by pink lines, on a black background.

Stitch around the outer perimeter of the embroidery, about 1/4" from the edge. Leave a 3" to 4" opening for turning. Trim the excess fabric from around the stitching.

Hooded towel with a white center and cream-yellow border, featuring a simple embroidered face with two eyes, a large nose, and whisker spots outlined in pink.

Get Inspired:

Turn the face right side out.

Round yellow hooded towel corner with embroidered cartoon face resembling a beaver or rodent, with pink cheeks, nose, white teeth, and black eyes.

Make the whiskers with the heavy thread.

Thread a hand needle with the heavy thread and tie a sturdy knot at the end of the thread. (I used a double thickness of thread.) Pull the needle through a spot on the face from the back to the front.

Round yellow hooded towel with a pink and beige embroidered animal face, white teeth, black eyes, pink nose, and brown whiskers on a black background.

Now make a knot in the thread on the front of the face to secure the whisker in place. Tighten the knot as close to the face as possible. I found it helpful to use the needle to catch the loop of the knot and keep it close to the embroidery as you tighten. Repeat the steps until you have completed all of the whiskers.

Close-up of pink and beige hooded beach towel corner with embroidered black eye, pink nose, and decorative stitching. Black thread and needle inserted.

Stitch the opening closed to finish the face. Determine the placement of the face on the top of the hood (in the small rectangle). Stitch the face to the top of the hood.

For the shark: Stitch the fin to the back of the hood (on the panel behind where the face is) by stitching the bottom edges of the fin to the hood. Cover the stitching with bias tape if desired.

Yellow hooded towel with bunny ears featuring plaid fabric inside ears and an embroidered round bunny face on the hood, set against a black background.

Assemble the lining in the same manner as the outer hood and place the lining in the hood with the wrong sides together.

Baste the edges of the hood to the edges of the lining to keep them together during the next steps.

Pink hooded bath towel with green frog prints all over, yellow binding around edges, laid flat on a black background.

Encase the entire front edge of the hood with the bias tape or quilt binding.

Find the center point of one long side of the bath towel, then find the center of the bottom edge of the hood. Meet the center points that you just found and place the bottom edge of the hood along the center of the long side of the towel, with right sides together.

Stitch the hood to the edge of the towel using a 1/2" seam allowance. Encase the seam allowances with the bias tape or quilt binding.

Yellow hooded towel with green and white checkered binding on hood and straps; pink embroidered mouse face with whiskers and button nose on hood.

Wrap up your little honey bunny in this sweet towel to make your next day at the beach extra special.

Yellow hooded bath towel with a stitched bunny face on the hood, featuring pink nose, eyes, mouth, whiskers, and large yellow ears with green inner lining.