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

• White bath towel
• White hand towel
• Black bath towel
• Black washcloth
• Fusible Interfacing (I used Heat'n Bond Lite Iron-on Adhesive)
• Matching thread
• Sewing machine, scissors, iron, Walking Foot if you have one.

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!

Pin Tested: Carissa Approved! Owl Hooded Towels

Have you ever seen a project on Pinterest and wondered "Is it really that easy?" or "I wonder if that really works"?  Me, too!

So I'm going to start a new feature segment of my blog called "Pin Tested: Carissa Approved!" for projects and recipes I try from Pinterest that are worth your time.

Pinterest Project: 

Owl Hooded Towels from Crazy Little Projects

I saw the whole series of these towels on Crazy Little Projects and LOVED them. Amber does such a great job showing you how to make these and makes the whole thing look super easy. I decided to make one for my son's friend who turned two this week.

I think it turned out pretty good. Here's mine:

Project Review:
The instructions are great. Make sure you read the original hooded towel tute she has for the frog first to get more details on how the whole process works. I used polar fleece(purple, black) and parts from a washcloth (white) to make the eyes. I didn't add heat and bond until the end - which was a mistake. I'd made the three layer eyes first and then used it to help adhere the eyes to the towel. I should have used it for each layer of the eye to make them smoother and prettier so I'll definitely do that next time.

Also, if you've never appliqued before, I would do a test project on a piece of plain woven fabric to try out the technique first because appliqueing with terry cloth would be a horrible first project since the fabric can be kind of wonky. You'll want to have an idea of what you're doing first!

But overall: Fabulous project! Inexpensive. Not hard. Took me about 90 minutes and most of it was spent making and appliqueing face parts.

Check out the full tutorial and pin it yourself from Crazy Little Projects.