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A DIY Hooded Towel that Your Kiddo Won’t Immediately Outgrow

It’s a sad day the day you pull your little toddler from the bathtub, slip on her favorite towel and realize the hood is clinging on for dear life half past her hairline and the corners no longer make it all the way around her belly! Outgrowing the infant towel hoodie is a bittersweet day indeed, but I’m here to tell you it doesn’t have to be this way. You can sew your own hooded bath towels for all the kids in your life! Read on for the full tutorial.

DIY Hooded Towel Tutorial for Toddlers and Big KidsMaterials: 1 regular sized bath towel, 1 coordinating hand towel, matching thread, sewing machine, scissors, ruler, sewing pins

We found our towels at Target in their affordable “Room Essentials” collection (bath towel: 30″ x 54″, hand towel: 16″ x 28″). Your towels don’t have to be this exact size, but I’ve included the measurements for reference.

1. We start by creating the hood. Fold your hand towel in half, matching up the short sides.

DIY Hooded Towel Tutorial - Project Nursery

2. Measure 11.5″ down from the folded edge and cut off the bottom edges.

DIY Hooded Towel Tutorial - Project Nursery

3. Open the hand towel and fold 1.5″ up on one long side. Use your coordinating thread to sew a straight stitch right below the finished edge along your fold.

DIY Hooded Towel Tutorial - Project Nursery

4. Then go back and sew right on top of the finished edge. This will give the hood a professional-looking finish.

DIY Hooded Towel Tutorial - Project Nursery

5. Fold the hand towel in half again, matching up the short sides. But this time, make sure the long finished edge you just sewed is inside. That will become the front of the hood.

DIY Hooded Towel Tutorial - Project Nursery

6. Measuring from the hood front, mark 8″ along the top folded edge and 12″ along the bottom edge. Align a ruler on the two marks and cut diagonally. Save the piece you removed to make hand pockets later!

DIY Hooded Towel Tutorial - Project Nursery

7. Pin your diagonal edges together. Use a zig-zag or overlock stitch to sew them together with a 1/4″ seam allowance. Then turn the hood right-side out.

DIY Hooded Towel Tutorial - Project Nursery

DIY Hooded Towel Tutorial - Project Nursery

8. Find the top inside center of your bath towel. Pin the bottom center of the hood to the top center of your bath towel, with the hood piece overlapping the bath towel by 1/2″.

DIY Hooded Towel Tutorial - Project Nursery

9. With the hood piece still overlapping the bath towel by 1/2″, pin the remaining bottom edges of the hood along the top edge of the towel. You will have to fold the hood a bit in order to get the straight edges to align.

DIY Hooded Towel Tutorial - Project Nursery

DIY Hooded Towel Tutorial - Project Nursery

10. Use your zig-zag/overlock stitch to sew the hood on with a 1/4″ seam allowance.

DIY Hooded Towel Tutorial - Project Nursery

Below you see how the zig-zig/overlock stitch right along the edge makes a lovely flat seam.

DIY Hooded Towel Tutorial - Project Nursery

11. On the back side of the hood, you’ll notice the top edge of the bath towel has made a flap. Use a straight stitch to sew this down along the hood.

DIY Hooded Towel Tutorial - Project Nursery

DIY Hooded Towel Tutorial - Project Nursery

DIY Hooded Towel Tutorial - Project Nursery

Instructions for Optional Hand Pockets

12. Cut along the fold of the discarded triangle from the hand towel. Measure down 8″ from the top and cut off the bottoms.

DIY Hooded Towel Tutorial - Project Nursery

13. You should now have two trapezoids like below. Run a zig-zag/overlock stitch along the diagonal edge to keep it from fraying.

DIY Hooded Towel Tutorial - Project Nursery14. On the inside of the towel, align the pocket just inside the top corner. Pin in place.

DIY Hooded Towel Tutorial - Project Nursery

15. Sew a zig-zag/overlock stitch along three sides, leaving the diagonal side open. Repeat with the other trapezoid on the other top corner.

DIY Hooded Towel Tutorial - Project Nursery

That’s a wrap! But seriously, it’s going to be the most coveted bath towel in the house.

DIY Hooded Towel Tutorial - Project Nursery

Which is why I sewed two—one for each of my kids, of course. After you understand the steps, you can easily whip one of these together in thirty minutes or less.

DIY Hooded Towel Tutorial for Toddlers and Big Kids - Project Nursery

This size hooded towel fits most kids ages 4 – 10. But bath towels aren’t the only ones longing for the hood treatment. My kids are now begging me to sew hoods onto their beach towels too! I can’t blame them though; it is the coziest way to dry off and get warm. Long live babies of all ages in hooded towels!

DIY Hooded Towel Tutorial for Toddlers and Big Kids - Project Nursery

DIY Hooded Towel Tutorial for Toddlers and Big Kids - Project Nursery

DIY Hooded Towel Tutorial for Toddlers and Big Kids - Project Nursery

Rosalyn

Thursday 8th of December 2022

Thank you!! Your pattern was easy to follow, my grand daughter now has a well constructed hooded towel.

Beth

Thursday 8th of December 2022

So glad to hear you enjoyed the tutorial! Hope your granddaughter loves it.

Marion Fleming

Saturday 23rd of July 2022

Brilliant tutorial and photographs. The results are brilliant. I too changed the pockets by cutting one end strip off the hand towel to start with, then folding and measuring the 11 inches from the cut end leaving a nice bound piece to use for pockets. My explanation is not as clear as yours, sorry. The grandkids love them. Thanks again x

Grey House Harbor

Tuesday 1st of February 2022

Jamie - Excellent tip about zigzagging the pocket tops! So glad you've enjoyed making big kid hoodie towels with my tutorial. :)

Jamie

Tuesday 1st of February 2022

Thank you so much! This is the easiest hooded towel ever! Made these over a year ago as my “babies” outgrew the baby towels and my kids love them. I am in the process of making more. The only thing I have changed is the rough edges on the hand pockets. After several washes the others I made began to unravel so this round I folded the edge over and then zigzag over the top. Hopefully this will help.

Roxann Shafto

Tuesday 14th of December 2021

The hooded towels were fun to make and very quick. Thank you for the easy to follow tutorial. Your recommendation for targets towels was a money saver. I’m sure my grandchildren will love them.