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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

Turn the face right side out. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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