Homemade Hooded Baby Towels

by Beth
(Sierra Vista, AZ)

This homemade hooded baby towel is one of my all time favorite baby gifts. I have both received and given this gift. This hooded towel is so much nicer than the hooded baby towels in the stores because it is much softer, thicker, and bigger. My children loved running around the house in their hooded towels even when they were three and four years old.

I made my first hooded towel from copying the hooded towel my child had been given. Even though the exact measurements will differ from towel to towel, these are the general guidelines. Adding your own creativity and personal preferences will make your hooded towel even more special.

Because towels and wash cloths have no raw edges, if you pick out the correct size of towel and wash cloth, you shouldn't need to cut anything except the loose threads from sewing the pieces together.

1. Purchase a quality, standard size bath towel and matching wash cloth. (Have fun with this!! There are so many wonderful towels and wash cloths that would be great. However, don't get towels that are really, really thick. They are too cumbersome to make the hooded towel correctly.)

2. Fold the wash cloth in half with one of the halves being approximately 5/8" longer than the other side. Pin and sew up both sides making the hood. Mark the center of the open side that is also the 5/8" longer section of the wash cloth.

3. Next mark the center length of the bath towel. Also mark 6 to 8 inches on both ends of the bath towel. (These 6 to 8 inch sections on both ends of the towel will be the overlap sections to allow the baby to be bundled up "snug and warm".)

4. The length on the bath towel between the two end markings is the length of material that needs to be sewn onto the extended length of the wash cloth. Because this length on the bath towel is considerably longer than the length of the wash cloth, you will need to either gather or make pleats to bring the bath towel section down to the length of the wash cloth. I have both gathered and pleated this section. Depending on the thickness and length of the towel, it can become quite cumbersome to get the two sections the same length. (Gathering seems to be faster but I like the results of making pleats better. However, making the pleats does require a bit of extra calculating.) After the length of the section between the two overlap pieces matches the wash cloth length (minus the 5/8" seam allowance on either side of the sewn wash cloth) then pin and sew the wash cloth and bath towel together. (At this point the sewing can become quite slow and tedious so go slowly and carefully.)

5. After you have successfully sewn the bath towel to the wash cloth, check your work to make certain the finished project is what you want. Then at that point, sew across that seam one or two times again to give it the support it needs. I also zigzag together the "raw edges" of the bath towel and wash cloth where they were sew together for more stability.