I'm not sure if this really belong here, but they're sorta clothing items, I guess? lol. If you think it should be somewhere else, just let me know though.
This is kinda old skool stuff, but it was my first sewing project so I'm still excited to show it off.
It cost about $8 to make: one bath towel, half a hand towel and 3 strips of ribbon.
Okay, here's the tutorial. (my first one, so be patient!) You will need 1 large bath towel, 1 hand towel, whatever strips of ribbon you want (about 1.5 ft each), and some really strong "jean denim" sewing machine needles (you *will* break normal sewing needles sewing through these towels, so save yourself the extra trip and trouble and just start with the heavy duty ones lol).
Also, since the hand towel can be used for two separate hooded towels, it is wise to buy both bath towels & your one hand towel at the same time (in case they run out of that color later on, then you're stuck w/ an odd color half-a-hand towel).
First, cut your hand towel in half. Then sew your ribbon on, just straight across the bottom (I had already made my 1st hood, and didnt have any ribbon for the 2nd one, so I just photoshopped a ribbon on this one):
Fold it in half again so that the ribbon is on the inside.
Then, fold the corner up in a right angle. Pin where the flap meets the ribbon-edge of the hood. Repeat with the other side. (it is very important to make sure your ribbon is on the long, open edge, and that you are marking with your pins on the *closed* edge)
Then mark from the pin to the outside corner with masking tape. This creates the shape your hood will be. Its good to peek inside at this point and make sure that this is the correct placement, as you will be sewing along the edge of the masking tape next.
Now, you sew from the outside corner to the pin mark, along the edge of the masking tape. Repeat on both sides. I just used a single stitch. After that, cut off each flap, and then sew the edges with a zigzag stitch or whatever, to finish off the edges and leave a nice clean line. You should be left with this:
Turning it right side out, it should look like this:
Inside the hood should look like this:
Ok, you're done with your hood now. Get out the bath towel, hold it out length wise (hot dog style) then fold it in half and mark the middle with a pin.
You're going to make your back pleat now, there are two ways to do it. First way to pleat it, you fold the edges under, meet at the center pin mark, about 2" on each side, then pin all the edges down, like this:
the back of your towel would look like this:
The 2nd way to pleat it (the way I like to do it, and how the pink one is done above, and how I'm doing this blue towel), you fold the edges over, about 2 inches on each side, meet in the center pin mark.Then pin all the layers down:
You can check to make your sides are even (so you dont need to measure with a ruler) by simply folding the edges up against each other)
This is what the back of your hooded towel will look like:
Lay your hood on the back of your bath towel, so all the raw edges are lined up together. Then pin the hood to the towel, it should look like this:
Then starting from one corner of your hood, sew a straight line about 1/2 an inch from the edge, through all 4 layers of towel, to the end corner. Then do a zigzag stitch along the edge to close your seam and make it nice and neat. Make sure you backstitch at each corner. You may have to handcrank it over the really thick corner parts, and go very slowly, otherwise you might break a needle!
Your finished hooded towel should look like this!
Ta-da!
I hope this was a good tute! If anyone has any questions, please feel free to PM me anytime.
