Friday, January 25, 2013

Make a Panda Bear Hooded Towel

My son loves panda bears (love panda bears, too? You might like my panda party, panda ears tutorial or panda pancakes). Now that he's 2 and huge, he needed some bigger towels for bath time. What better creature to make a hooded towel like than his favorite snuggly panda?

I followed the same technique taught by Amber at Crazy Little Projects. If you have never made a hooded towel, do yourself a favor and read her very thorough tutorial. Then come back here and see how to adapt it to make a panda.

Supplies

Cut list:
White hand towel: Cut in half across the narrow width
Black bath towel: Cut off the top third of the towel across the longest width of the towel
Black washcloth: Cut out 4 ear shaped pieces (remember to cut them bigger than you need them). Then iron on the fusible interfacing to the remaining washcloth material. Cut out two kidney bean shaped pieces for eye shadows and a nose.


Hood
  1. Fold in the front edge of the towel past any band that might be on the towel. Using white thread, sew across. This is the front edge of your hood.
  2. Switch to black thread. Stitch around the curve of the ears, leaving the flat edges open. Flip ears so stitches are inside.
  3. Iron down the eye patches and nose. Use a zig zag stitch to applique these pieces to the hood.
  4. Cut slits in the hood where you want the ears to go. Insert ears and sew to hood from the inside.
  5. Fold hood in half down the middle of the face, right sides together and sew with white thread.
(Are these instructions not making sense? They assume you're familiar with basic hooded towel construction. Be sure to read Amber's great hooded towel tute if you haven't yet.)

This is what your finished hood should look like:

Body
  1. Placing right sides together and being sure to line up any bands on the narrow ends of the towels, lay the long black bath towel strip along the long edge of the white bath towel . Sew together and open. 
  2. To keep the seam flat, I opened up the back side of this seam and stitched down the length of the towel on both sides.
  3. Make a tuck along the top edge of the black section and pin in place (refer to Amber's tutorial).
  4. Center the hood seam to line up with the tuck and sew, attaching the hood to the body of the towel
Enjoy!



8 comments:

  1. So fun!!!!! Great idea. I'll share this on my facebook tomorrow for my fans to see. :)

    Amber
    www.crazylittleprojects.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is such a cute idea! Thanks for sharing the how-to!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ha! I pulled up your page, and my 3-year-old daughter ran over and said, "LET ME SEE THAT! I want one of those, Mom!"

    Looks like another project on the to-do list. ;)

    Aloha,
    Charlie

    ReplyDelete
  4. My two-year-old keeps saying "like it, that bear," so I'm pretty sure that means he wants me to make him one too :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is soooo cute! Love it. Pinning. xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  6. Adorable! Pinned and tweeted!
    Barbara at Chase the Star

    ReplyDelete
  7. OMG - adorable! And your little guy is such a cutie!

    ReplyDelete

Comments make me happy! Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Make a Panda Bear Hooded Towel

My son loves panda bears (love panda bears, too? You might like my panda party, panda ears tutorial or panda pancakes). Now that he's 2 and huge, he needed some bigger towels for bath time. What better creature to make a hooded towel like than his favorite snuggly panda?

I followed the same technique taught by Amber at Crazy Little Projects. If you have never made a hooded towel, do yourself a favor and read her very thorough tutorial. Then come back here and see how to adapt it to make a panda.

Supplies

Cut list:
White hand towel: Cut in half across the narrow width
Black bath towel: Cut off the top third of the towel across the longest width of the towel
Black washcloth: Cut out 4 ear shaped pieces (remember to cut them bigger than you need them). Then iron on the fusible interfacing to the remaining washcloth material. Cut out two kidney bean shaped pieces for eye shadows and a nose.


Hood
  1. Fold in the front edge of the towel past any band that might be on the towel. Using white thread, sew across. This is the front edge of your hood.
  2. Switch to black thread. Stitch around the curve of the ears, leaving the flat edges open. Flip ears so stitches are inside.
  3. Iron down the eye patches and nose. Use a zig zag stitch to applique these pieces to the hood.
  4. Cut slits in the hood where you want the ears to go. Insert ears and sew to hood from the inside.
  5. Fold hood in half down the middle of the face, right sides together and sew with white thread.
(Are these instructions not making sense? They assume you're familiar with basic hooded towel construction. Be sure to read Amber's great hooded towel tute if you haven't yet.)

This is what your finished hood should look like:

Body
  1. Placing right sides together and being sure to line up any bands on the narrow ends of the towels, lay the long black bath towel strip along the long edge of the white bath towel . Sew together and open. 
  2. To keep the seam flat, I opened up the back side of this seam and stitched down the length of the towel on both sides.
  3. Make a tuck along the top edge of the black section and pin in place (refer to Amber's tutorial).
  4. Center the hood seam to line up with the tuck and sew, attaching the hood to the body of the towel
Enjoy!



8 comments:

  1. So fun!!!!! Great idea. I'll share this on my facebook tomorrow for my fans to see. :)

    Amber
    www.crazylittleprojects.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is such a cute idea! Thanks for sharing the how-to!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ha! I pulled up your page, and my 3-year-old daughter ran over and said, "LET ME SEE THAT! I want one of those, Mom!"

    Looks like another project on the to-do list. ;)

    Aloha,
    Charlie

    ReplyDelete
  4. My two-year-old keeps saying "like it, that bear," so I'm pretty sure that means he wants me to make him one too :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is soooo cute! Love it. Pinning. xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  6. Adorable! Pinned and tweeted!
    Barbara at Chase the Star

    ReplyDelete
  7. OMG - adorable! And your little guy is such a cutie!

    ReplyDelete

Comments make me happy! Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts.

 
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