Hooded Towels

First, cut out your Front and Back Hood pieces from your hand towel. Make sure you place them right so that you can cut both pieces from the one hand towel. Next, we will work on our appliques for the Front of the hood.

Trace your muzzle and nose pieces onto the smooth side of your fusible web. (This is the picture of fox Ears, but it’s the same concept). Cut around the pieces and place them with the fusible side down onto the fabric that you want to use. Iron on as recommended in the directions on the box.

Cut out your fabric pieces and peel the backing off the heart nose piece. Place on the muzzle and iron on as directed.

Next peel the backing off the muzzle piece and iron on to the center bottom of the Front Hood piece, leaving it up about ⅜ inch.

Next, we are going to stitch around both the nose piece and the muzzle piece. I chose to use a pink thread around the nose and white around the muzzle, but you can use the same color if you want. Set your machine to zigzag with a width of about 3 and a length of around 1. This will vary by your machine and preference, so you may want to test your stitch on a scrap piece before stitching on your towel. Stitch around your pieces, sewing about ¾ of the way on the applique and ⅟₄ of the way onto the towel.

Next, using a washable fabric marker mark where you would like the mouth and Whiskers. Using the same method as above, zigzag stitch over your markings.

Now we will construct the Ears. Place a towel Ear piece and a lining Ear piece with right sides together. Stitch ¼ inch around the Ear, leaving the bottom section open so you can turn it right side out. Depending on how thick your towel is, you may need to leave a bit of the side open as well so you pull the Ear right side out. You can then just topstitch the side closed.

Your seam should now be hidden from both sides. Turn right side out and press if needed.

The first thing to do is print out your pattern and cut your Front and Back Hood pieces as well as your main Ear pieces from the hand towel. Be careful in placing the pattern pieces so that you can fit all four of them on the one hand towel. Next cut out your muzzle, nose, and center Ear pattern pieces and trace them onto the smooth side of your fusible web. Cut out your traced pieces (you don’t have to be precise at this point as shown above) and iron them onto your cotton fabric, following the directions on the package. The Ear and Whisker pieces will go on the white fabric and the nose will go on the black fabric. 

Cut out all of the pieces from your fabric. Starting with the center Ear piece, remove the backing and iron it onto the right side of one of your main Ear pieces. Topstitch around the Ear using a zig zag stitch. I set my stitch with a width of 3 and a length under 1. This will vary by machine and preference, so you might want to test on a scrap piece. Repeat for the other Ear.

Clip the tip of your Ear, being careful not to cut through your stitches 

Flip right side out and poke out the tip of the Ear. Repeat for the other Ear.

Now we will work on the Whisker pieces. Remove the backing of the fusible web and iron onto the front of your towel, leaving a narrow triangle between both. Topstitch around both Whiskers using the same zig zag stitch as you did for the Ear. When you get to the edge of the Whiskers you will have to go slowly and leave your needle in your fabric, lift up your presser foot, and pivot your fabric around the tight turns. Lower your presser foot and continue sewing up to the next turn.

Repeat for the Nose, using a black thread to topstitch. Leave your nose up ¾ inch from the bottom of your towel, as you will be adding bias tape here and you don’t want to cover your nose.

We can now attach the Hood to the towel. Mark the center of your towel with a pin along one of the long sides.

Place your Hood face down and match the center of the hood with the center of the towel.

Pin together, placing the Hood ⅛ inch to ¼ inch below the towel.

Once your hood is sewn on, flip everything over so you are looking at the back of the Hood.

Fold up the edge of the towel so it lies flat all the way across and hides the seam you just sewed.

Pin in place and sew ⅛ inch from the top edge of the towel.

The next step is to add bias tape to your hood. You can choose to just add it to the hood, or you can add it all the way around as I did in this version. First place your bias tape face down on your towel with raw edges lining up.

Next, fold the bias tape back along the crease you created.

And fold it straight along the edge, so that raw edges line up around the corner.

Starting at the edge of the fabric, continue sewing until you get to the next corner or are finished.

When you get to the end, fold one end back about ½ inch.

Place the other end over it and cut off excess. Continue sewing until you reach where you started.

Once you have it sewn all the way around, open up your bias tape and press out away from the towel.

Next take your bias tape and fold along the outside seam.

When you get to the corners, fold one side to the edge.

The tuck the other edge in and over the other so that it forms a 45 degree angle. On the corner. Sew close to the inside edge, attaching the bias tape all the way around.