Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

By Kid’s Craft Contributor, Gillian from the blog “Dried Figs and Wooden Spools”.

Now that summer is in full swing around here, we’ve been hitting the pool just about every chance we get. My son is generally content to wander around after swimming in his dripping wet trunks, too busy to bother with drying himself or being warm. My daughter, either is just so freaking thin or whether it is a fashion thing, insists on being bundled up into a towel as soon as she emerges from the water. I started thinking about my own summers at the pool when I was a child and remembered that my grandmother made wraps for herself and for us kids out of towels and decided it would be just the ticket for my little fish.

There are lots of variations on hooded towels and towel wraps out there. The easiest is to cut a hand towel in half and stitch it to the center of the long side of a bath towel. Once it’s attached, fold the hand towel in half and sew the top seam, creating an easy hood. You can also attach a button and loop along the long edge of a beach towel to keep it wrapped around you - strapless dress style. But for my little girl, who is always ready for a costume, I wanted something a little Red Riding Hoodish.

Because she is still small, I trimmed down a beach towel and used the scraps for the hood. But if you have a taller child, find a matching hand towel and cut it in half for the hood part.

Here’s what you need

1 beach towel
Sewing scissors
 Sewing machine and thread 

Decide on the length you want by folding the towel in half along the long sides (hamburger, as my son says, as opposed to hot dog which would be along the sort sides so you get a long skinny towel – where do they get these things?) If it’s a good length, leave it as is, if not, trim it down leaving enough for a 1 inch hem on the end you cut.

With the towel sill folded hamburger style, cut up through the front side at the center and then along the fold one inch less than the hood will be wide.

Fold over and hem the bottom, the sides of the slit and the front half of the hood opening, leaving the back side to stitch the hood on. If you have used the bottom of the towel for the hood, you’ll need to cut it in half and join the two pieces to make a more square shape before stitching it in place.

Serge or zigzag stitch the raw edge where the hood attaches and then pin the front of the neck onto the hood, sewing in about three inches on each side to make the shoulders.

Sew the top of the hood closed and add a ribbon tie at the neck to finish.

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