Duck Hooded Towel Tutorial

Now that my toddler is two I'm finally getting around to a project I’ve had in the back of my mind since shortly after he was born.  I hate how thin and small those store bought baby towels are (with an exception for a couple really cute ones I found at Kohls.  - but unfortunately they are pretty pricey!  So I made my own.  I happened to have everything I needed including a new yellow bath towel (that we received for our wedding 4 years ago!) Here is how I turned it into a cute duck baby towel that will make a perfect baby gift for my friend!  Please be patient- this is my first tutorial and I don't know a lot of the proper sewing techniques. 

First I cut the sides off the towel so that I only had a flat piece of terry cloth to work with.

Then I folded one corner down- lining up edges.  Then cut off the excess fabric.  This will leave you with a square piece of fabric.

Using the "left over" that was just cut off in the previous step do the same thing. This will leave you with a small square that you will use to make the hood part.

Cut along the crease so that you have 2 triangles. 

I appliqued two eyes and a beak. 

Sew binding to the bottom of the "face"

Place the triangle piece with the "face" on top of the large square in one of its corners right sides together. 

I rounded the point using a roll of tape.

Sew around the 2 outside edges of the small triangle- make sure you sew around the curve you drew.  Trim the extra fabric.

Turn rightside out.  You can see the roll of tape I used to round the top.

I didn't like all the corners so I chose to round off the bottom corner.  As you can see I used the Bumbo seat- but you could use a medium sized trash can, bucket or leave it square.

I made a couple feet from some scraps of fabric.  I drew a template on freezer paper cut out 4 pieces (2 per foot) and sewed them together.  Then turn them rightside out.

Then I sewed the binding aroung the rest of the towel making sure to sew the feet into the binding.  I am not a pro at binding so I won't go into detail about how to do that since it won't be right. 

Then using the remaining remnant from the original towel and another scrap I bought the day before in the scrap bin at Joann's I made a burp cloth to go along with this towel. 

The finished gift