A Beginner’s Guide to Making a Hooded Towel
Do you have kids who love to spend their summer’s out by the pool or have little ones who like to dry off using fun hooded towels? Did you know that they are incredibly easy to make? Seriously. The kids enjoy them AND you get to choose the towels to coordinate to your liking. Plus, they are easy to make (busy mama win!)….
Once you make one, you’ll see how easy they are to knock out on a rainy afternoon (when you’re dreaming of sunny pool days 😉 ). Pick up enough towels and hand towels to make a few sets in one sitting.
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Supplies Needed for Making a Hooded Towel
- One Bath Towel (I’m a big fan of Target & JC Penny towels for their color choices)
- One Hand Towel
- One Washcloth (Optional)
- Fun Ribbon
- Fabric Scissors (I love my Friskars!)
- Straight Pins
- Heavy Duty Needle
- Quality Coordinating Thread
The hand towel is used to make the hood and the wash cloth makes for a cute complement to the hooded towel! If you’re feeling especially creative, grab some coordinating ribbon for a little extra pizzazz.
I found these towels at JCPenny. The next time you see them on sale pick them up! This is the great part about making hooded towels, you have complete freedom of prints, texture, and ribbons!
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The first thing to do is take the hand towel and fold it in half lengthwise. Cut to 26″ in length. Once you have it cut to length lay it out so that you can measure the ribbon. Lay the ribbon across towel and about 2″ down from the fold and cut enough to slightly go over the sides of the towel.
Set up your machine (I use the Brother SE400) to a straight stitch. Sew the ribbon in place.
Wrap/fold the ribbon ends on the “wrong side” of the towel and sew securely in place.
Now you need to begin creating the hood. Take the hand towel and fold it wrong side out and width wise. Look at the picture below for a better idea of what I am explaining. In this view, you will sew along the outer edges.
Once you sew these, you will have only the center area open where the ribbon is. DO NOT SEW on the side where the ribbon is!
For this project, you will need to use a heavy-duty needle. Take a look at your sewing machine’s owner’s manual to see what it suggests.
For my machine, I used a denim needle that I already had on-hand. You will find that once you begin sewing through several layers of terry cloth, the needle becomes very important.
Now that your hood is closed on three sides, its time to make the hood opening! First you will lay it ribbon side out and have the opening facing the bottom. Then, take the upper right corner and fold it into the left upper corner.
You should have a towel that looks like it’s folded into a quarter of itself. This next step requires you to fold out the bottom of the folded towel. By pulling the bottom corners out, you will create a pocket in the top half. Orient it so that it creates the hood. One last step.
Pin the opening together by tucking the open ends into each other and sew the opening closed. This will make sure nothing frays. Now the hood is ready to be attached to the bath towel!
I like to keep things simple. Therefore, I recommend adding any extras, like ribbon, to your bath towel before you attach the hood.
If you add the ribbon later, the hood just adds more “stuff” to get in the way.
I measured in about 9″ to add the ribbon. You can choose the place, just be sure to make sure its equal on both sides. *My OCD tendencies are coming out!*
Lay the right side of the bath towel face down on your surface. With the wrong side of the bath towel facing you, pin the hood in the center of the bath towel about 2″ down and overlapping with the bath towel.
Use lots of pins here, you want to keep the terry cloth in place! When it’s all done, you will have a sewn a rectangular box. Use a straight stitch and follow the sides of the area pinned. Things get very thick here. It’s important to go slow and know that you will get it. I promise.
Once you have all four sides sewn, sew another line across the top and bottom with a zigzag stitch. I know my kids can be tough on items and I did not want the towels to fall apart!
Here I took the ribbon and added a stripe on the hand towel. Again I cut the ribbon about 3/4″ longer than the wash cloth and tucked the extra under the wash cloth and sewed into place.
Here it is hanging up! How cute! I can’t wait to see my niece wearing her new towel!
Once you complete your first hooded towel, you will be to knock out your future ones in a fraction of the time! Once you learn it and find the technique that you love, you’ll become a semi-professional very quickly.
The best gifts are always handmade. By finding a cute hand towel and bath towel you can quickly knock these out. You can give them for little ones for bath-time or those who love to go swimming! Simply stock up during sale time and you can make them with little effort when you need them!
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Ahhh this is so lovely what a great idea and looks amazing too. I love the design and colors. Thanks for linking up to Share With Me. I have enjoyed reading your blog posts and so grateful for you linking up. I hope you will continue to link up in the next few weeks as I had the reins over to the new Share With Me hostess and continue long after linking up with her too. #sharewithme
Thank you for the hooded towel tutorial…. I made a couple the size for a newborn, and a couple of larger ones for later. Great shower gifts.
Thank you so much Kathy! Newborn bath time is so much fun, I’m sure the new parents are loving the towels! -Brittany
Hi what size did you do for the newborn?
Thanks in advance!
Jana
Hi Jana! For babies, I’ve always used the normal sized bath towels. They grow so quickly anyways! 🙂
Thanks for the tutorial. For this tutorial what color thread did you use? teal? or Clear? I am a lazy sewer and really hate changing out my thread for the ribbon, then the seams. so I was wondering if you had any luck with clear thread…
Hi Marci– Thankfully I had teal on-hand and used it on the ribbon. I’m with you on changing out the thread 🙂 I’ve never used clear thread for any project. -Brittany
HI Brittany
Faye fom Nova Scotia here….. Any chance you have the necessary list of materials, to make “Adult” sized Hooded Towels?
Hi Faye! These towel use a full size bath towel and a hand towel. I’m not sure how you could make them larger. Thanks for stopping by!
use the oversized beach towel : )
I do not understand the step where you fold the right corner into the left and fold out the bottom. I can’t figure it out and the pictures don’t really show how to do it.
Thanks
Hi Pollyanne! In the picture with 3 images, you’ll see that you want to take the corner and “stuff” it into the “into this one.” Then you’ll open the bottom portion, almost like making a paper airplane. I’m so sorry that I don’t have a video to show this. Thank you for stopping by! –Brittany
Do you wash your towels before sewing them?
I do pre-wash them to allow for shrinkage. However, the several we’ve received for gifts weren’t washed. Thank you for stopping by! -Brittany
I cannot follow these instructions at all. I guess I am just lame since everyone else seemed to have no problem. It took me forever to find the color towels I wanted to use to make these for my four granddaughters and now I have ruined one set because the instructions are so vague. Perhaps you should have had a video. So looking forward to giving these as gifts and now, I am back to square one.
Hi Elaine, I’m really sorry to hear you are having trouble. It sounds like watching a video would be better suited for your learning style. I’d recommend looking on YouTube for a hooded towel tutorial. You’ll find so many ideas!
I have made hooded towels a number of years ago but was using your notes and I couldn’t follow doing the hood. Sorry, not good instructions. Once I started I remembered how I did mine a long time ago, but it’s done for my handicapped grandson who is 21 and has a nurse who gives him a bath. Someone ask about the size above, I used a “sheet towel” for mine. I think it will be plenty big. Thanks!
For those who are having trouble with the hood. I cut the hand towel in half Width wise, sew the cut edge wrong side together, then I zigzag over it to. Then sew the bottom end to the bath towel I the middle of the side. Some time I use a contrasting color for the hood
How can I get/find a print off of this without all the ads in there? I don’t want 25 pages of filler when I can print off 3 pages of directions.
Hi Becky, I understand that you enjoy finding tutorials online for you to use yourself. With that said, these ads provide us the ability to provide you tutorials at ZERO COST to you. It costs a significant amount of money to keep any website online, up and running. Please remember that as you surf the web, someone is paying for you to do so and these ads keep these items available for YOU. We appreciate your understanding. Thanks, Brittany
Do you have a place to subscribe to your emails. I really enjoyed your tutorial!
Debbie