Baby Hooded Towels

If I have ever come to your baby shower, there is a good chance you received a hooded towel along with other baby goodies from me (Ok, I didn't do this every time, but several times I have). My mom showed me how to make these several years ago, and I've enjoyed making them ever since.

 

The above picture shows a hooded towel the way I was taught to make it- using a bath towel and a specially folded washrag. This is great for newborns. If you have a big headed baby (like me) who outgrows their hooded towel, you may want to try a different method, like the one shown next!

 

^This is one of my more recent hooded towels, made with half a hand towel instead of a washrag. You just cut the hand towel in half, fold and sew that raw edge to itself, match the seam you just sewed to the center of the long edge of the bath towel, pin, and sew. You can probably figure it out from the picture. You can see in the picture that I like to fold the decorative edge of the hand towel up before I sew it. This cuff is a nice detail, and also keeps the towel from flopping over baby's eyes. There is plenty of room for baby and toddler heads. There are other methods out there for hooded towels for older kids.

 

The ties that you see in some of the pictures is a recent idea I got from Martha Stewart- make the towel into a bath apron for yourself- handy when you don't want to be nearly as wet as the baby by the end of the bath! It also gets the towel into position so you can quickly lift baby out, onto your lap, and cover with the towel to keep as warm and toasty as possible.

 

My cute little guy after a bath!

A cute way to package the hooded towel that my mom taught me. Roll the sides of the towel in to the center, fold up, and tie. This creates a nice little pouch you can fill with bath goodies. Draw a face on a disposable diaper if you want, and put under the hood.

Another cute idea for packaging. This is just a washrag folded in half to be a triangle, then tightly rolled from the corner to the folded edge, then the roll is folded twice and tied with a ribbon. I think it is cute as it is to be a bath scrubber (it is washable as is, but you could undo it to wash it to be a little more sanitary, then redo it), but some people add all sorts of decoration, googly eyes etc. and use it as an ice holder for bumps and bruises- a "boo-boo bunny". You can google that if you want to see way more detailed tutorials on how to make.
My cutie again. I added ric rac as an easy embellishment on the hood.
Ok, one more: A different spin on hood embellishment. I used half a handtowel in a contrasting color and a washrag folded in half the same color as the bath towel.

Crocheted Dish Rags and Hand Towel

 

This was a simple if not quick project for me. It is a nice project to work on when you want to have your hands busy while doing something else that requires attention. I only picked up my crocheting while I was doing something else too, like watching movies, riding in the car (as a passenger!), watching my son play etc. Thus it took me quite some time to finish a little project. I used a half double crochet stitch, with a size F crochet hook, and just started with a chain as long as I thought I would like my dish rags. The hand towel I did the same, just twice as long. I added stripes or a border on some of them. The yarn is 100% cotton. The rags match my kitchen and I am excited to use them!