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!

Make a Cute Vintage Style Apron

I love aprons! I made my first apron just a couple months ago for a bridal shower. While I wouldn't call them fast projects, they are pretty easy to make. I made the apron in this post for my friend, Kathy and I'm pretty sure she loves it.

This isn't really a tutorial so much as a "walk through." I didn't take pictures while I was making the apron, but the pieces are not hard to put together.

Piece 1: The Top

The top is based on the Tea and Crumpets knock off apron pattern over at Sewing in No Man's Land (her post includes two aprons, scroll down until you see a white a teal apron called Tea and Crumpets). If you scroll about halfway down the page, she has links to download the pattern pieces via Google Docs and gives you great instructions with pictures about how to make the top.

I made the top from some khaki cotton. At the bottom of the top (where it would attach to the waist), I finished it with a piece of thin fabric that I double folded (think bias tape....without the bias).

Piece 2: The Waist Band

The waist band has three pieces. The front center piece is made in the print fabric with the khaki edging and then two side pieces that are from the khaki only. 

You can make edging for the front part using the technique Sewing in No Man's Land describes on her Tea and Crumpets post OR do what I did.

I cut the printed piece to be 4 inches wide and the khaki piece to be about 5 inches wide. I lined up the top edges, right sides together and sewed them together. Then I had to shift the fabric to line up the bottom edges with right sides together and sewed that down. When I flipped it right sides out, the khaki part is bigger, so when you look at the printed side, there is little khaki stripe along the top and the bottom.

Piece 3: The Skirt

The skirt was very simple: 1 rectangle of printed fabric (maybe 30 x 24?) and a rectangle of muslin that was the same size. I sewed them right sides together (with an opening) and then flipped it, pressed it and top stitched around the edges.

Assembly:

To put the pieces together, I center the top and skirt on the waist band then pinned them in place. Then, I top stitched the center part of the waist band, being sure to catch the other pieces as a cruised by. 

Are my pictures not making sense? Check out my video walk through to see if that helps:

DIY Ginger Syrup for homemade soda

My family has been trying to find healthier alternatives to traditional soda. High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is not only horrible for you, but almost all of it is made from genetically modified corn - which we oppose on moral grounds. Plus drinking lots of extra calories is bad for you. Diet sodas aren't too much better. And with all the hub-bub going around about caramel coloring causing cancer, it's enough to make you give up soda altogether.

Except I'm addicted. I think it's the bubbles. I find plain club soda has a weird bitter taste so I still need it flavored somehow. And it needs to be inexpensive.

I've seen a few recipes for infused syrups that you can use to make homemade sodas floating around online about thought I'd give it a shot.  I love that I have 100% control over what goes into it and it's not pricey! It turned out pretty tasty, too, if I do say so myself. Plus I think it makes a fun inexpensive gift. So without further ado...