DIY Hooded Baby Towel


A luxurious hooded baby towel is a great gift for an expecting or new mom. It’s big bang for your buck. Be sure to coordinate your towel to the nursery or family bathroom. If you’re feeling extra ambitious, present the gift in one of Jaime’s drawstring bags made from your accent fabric. 
DIY after the jump…
What you need:
A bath towel (approx 30″x54″)
A hand towel (approx 16″x27″) (not face cloth)
Accent fabric, an approximately 3.5″ x 18″ strip
Coordinating thread
Head pins
Sewing Machine
Iron

1. Wash and dry towels and accent fabric
2. Iron accent fabric
3. Fold, pin and iron a 1/2 inch seam allowance on both long sides of your accent fabric for a finished width of 2.5″

Tip: pinning through the outside of the fabric rather than the inside, shown incorrectly here, will ensure that you do not sew pins into your piece. Good to know.

4. Cut the edges off of your hand towel to 17″ length

5. Fold the hand towel the long way and position accent fabric strip evenly 1″ from the fold, pin in place through top layer of towel only

6. Unfold towel and sew trim to towel with 1/4″ seam along both lengths

7. Fold towel so that accent trim is folded in half on the inside as shown and sew down left and right side at inside edge of original towel seam

8. Invert piece to look like this…

9. Invert top left point into top right point to look like this…

10. Open piece to look like this (it’s the hood!)…

11. Fold Bath towel in half and place a pin at center edge.
12 Align top center edge of Bath Towel with back center seam of hood and pin an inside seam along entire back edge of hood (be sure to pin the vertical seam of hood open)

13.Sew seam

14. Now would be a really good time to make sure there are no random pins inside your hood. Last chance before we sew it up!

15. Fold inside bottom hood seam under, hiding all edges and trim inside and pin. The bulk of this seam should fall just below the back seam if the inside hood point is pushed all the way in, as it should be.
16. Sew. This is where a newer machine might get tired as the layers are quite thick here. You may need to skip over the corners and stitch these by hand later.

17. And you’re done!

18. Bathe baby, tuck baby in, drink wine.

by

41 Comments

Jaime

this is such a cute project, i can't wait to make one! everything looks cuter with quinn in the picture. could she be any smilier?

Reply
Nancy Saccoccio

Jacinda, save all the scraps from the origami fabric. The birds will make great appliques, ironed onto stiff stuff they will also be good for barettes.

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Jacinda

Jaime-my mom gave me this fabric a few years back and I haven't had the nerve to cut it, this little scrap was all I could bear to snip! This
is the only place I could find it online. $24!! I guess they consider it an antique.

Great ideas Nancy!

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Jaime

a big order of fabric arrived on my doorstep yesterday and i picked up my towels at target this morning! i'm going to make one for A BOY (i actually know one person with a son) this weekend!

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Kristin and Chris

Thanks for this awesome tutorial. I made my 1-year-old a big girl towel back when you posted this and tonight I used the hood part tutorial to make her a hooded bathrobe. Love the blog and thanks again!

Reply
Sara

Quick question…I'd like to make one for my 3 year old son as he has outgrown the one my mom made him. Do I just use a bigger towel? Would it be that simple?

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Amber

This is a wonderful project! Thank you – I just made a hooded towel and it took all of two hours (including a break!). I love it!

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Tammy Ford

Baby Gifts are mainly those which require a bit of extra time and work done by the gift giver. You can buy a gift from a store and then add a few items in it to make it personalized or you can make a gift all by yourself. No other gift than a personalized one can make the parents of a new born baby happier. That is because a personalized gift expresses your deepest love and affection for the baby and the family.

Reply
Dale

My wife & I have been making towels similar to this for about 25 years. (We have been using a single finger-tip towel for the hood, rather than cutting up a hand towel.)

We hear from some parents that their kids still consider the hooded towel their “very own” bath towel, even after the kid gets to be as much as 6 to 8 years old. It’s hard to think of ANYTHING you might give to a child (or baby) that would be used – and cherished – for that long!

Several years ago we made a couple batches of these and gave them to social service agencies serving low income and single parents.

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Jacinda

hi dale-I totally agree. My kids are still wearing these years later too. Great gift and easy to make!

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V. Gifford

I have been making baby bath towels for nearly 30 years, love them! The one I make is so similar to yours, except I cut the hand towel in half through the width, then trim the factory short edge off, fold the the now cut edge back about 1 1/2 to 2 inches (right side to right side), then pin on the 1 to 2 inch width grosgrain ribbon or material like you and sew the long edges of the ribbon/material down (if the towel had the factory flat, decorative strip on the short end of the towel, the ribbon/material covers it), then with right sides together, sew up the back cut edge to make the hood (very similar to you). I sew the hood on just like you. This way you can get to hoods out of the hand towel, saves money and not so bulky. Just a thought.

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Sonia

This is a great tutorial! So simple to follow, thank you! I could. Ale a hundred of these! 🙂

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Amy Morin

Loved this! I even embroidered a name on the fabric strip before I sewed it to the hood!

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Nanou Cécile

I don’t know how to thank you for this tremendous tutorial, i found it on Pinterest and i translate it into french for my personnal usage.. but if you want it, i will be very pleased to provide it by mail…just ask !!

MANY THANKS, I am a very happy french sewer grand mother .. with your great idea and your sens of sharing , your are a very kind personn !!!

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karen Holzschuh

It’s 2019 and people are still using your design! It is so easy and everyone ooh’s and aww’s when they see the finished product! Thank you so much!

Reply

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