2 Giggle Boxes: Tutorial: Scraps Hooded Sea Beauties Towel and Scrapplique Seahorse

I was at the park with the giggle boxes and some friends the other day when my friend Julie mentioned she had seen a hooded towel at a baby shower. She explained how it was put together and suggested I make one, so...I did with baby Clara in mind.

Materials: Scissors, Rotary board and cutter, ruler, disappearing ink pen, pins, thread, sewing machine, iron, ironing board, one towel(you will only use half of it if it's a large towel), one washcloth(you will only use half of this too), half a yard of material or scraps, fusible web if you want to do an applique and whatever template you want for the applique.

Optional: Serger

I started out with two wash clothes and a towel. I cut material the size of the wash clothes, sewed it on, put the wash clothes right sides together and sewed up two sides of the wash clothes. When I finished I realized that it was going to be too big for her little head so I went another route.

So this is where you BEGIN!

I took one wash cloth and cut it in half diagonally.

Then I realized I am running out of the Sea Beauties material and need to improvise. So I went through some bags of scraps and found a material I thought complimented it well. And I am glad I did! I love the look of the two fabrics together.

I laid the strips down on the wash cloth until I was satisfied with how they looked. Then I trimmed them a bit so they matched up with the wash cloth. They don't have to be perfect because there will be a bias around the edges of the towel.

Put right sides together and sew, press seams and do the same with the other pieces. It will look like a pyramid when you are finished and will match up with the shape of the towel.

Then top stitch each piece.

Sew the material to the towel, wrong sides together.

Now for the bias that will go on the bottom of the hood. Measure and cut a 2 in wide piece of fabric and the length you need. Cut.

Fold in half and press. Open up and fold the two sides in to meet in the middle. Then fold that in half and press.

Next cut your big towel in half, take one of the halves and and fold the corners over so it matches up with the other side. You are squaring the towel off. Mine ended up being 26x26.

I also cut any thick edges off so it would be easier later to sew on the bias and rounded the top of the hood.

Now pick a corner of the towel round it and put the hood part right sides together with the towel, pin and sew.

Serge or Zig zag stitch to finish the edge. Turn it right side out and press.

Now for the bias around the entire towel. The material is 44/45 inches wide and the towel is 26x26 so I need 104 inches of bias. I cut 3 2in. strips of fabric. You will have some left over, but you can cut it off at the end.

Now sew the three 2 in. pieces together: Take two, sew right sides, then take the last pieces and sew it right sides together to the other two. press seams.

(see pics above, same process and directions as hood bias)

Take bias and begin on one end of the towel(I started at one of the ends opposite of the hood) and sandwich the towel between the bias, pin and make sure bias is even.

It becomes difficult when you get to the hood because it is so thick, just do the best you can with the pinning. I ended up taking the pins out when sewing that section.

Begin sewing. Make sure the bias is even on both sides. You don't want the stitch to hold one side and not the other. I stitched about 1/8 inch from the edge. When you get to the hood use one hand to guide and the other to help lightly pull the material through. I took the pins out at this point and went slowly.

When you get to the corners fold it over a bit and continue sewing. When you get to the end fold the end piece over so the raw edges are tucked inside and sew.

You're finished!

I embellished the towel with a seahorse applique. I have bags full of scraps so I used scraps for my applique. I really liked the look and plan to do more scrappliques!!

I sewed the scraps together just like for the hood of the towel. Pressed the seams and applied the fusible webbing. If you need a tutorial on applique you can find a good one here.