Hello Kitty Hooded Towel

I made this hooded towel for Lyla for Christmas.  I got my inspiration from Crazy Little Project's animal hooded towels.  If you haven't seen this blog, you need to check it out!  I have made the Angry Birds Hooded Towel and the Teddy Bear Towel.  She has tons of other tutorials and fun stuff, so be sure to take a look.

Anyway, here is what you will need to make the Hello Kitty Towel:

1 full-sized white towel (Target makes a quick-dry one that I really like!)
1 white hand towel
Black and yellow felt for eyes and nose
Pink felt or ribbon for the bow
Basic sewing equipment

1.  Cut your hand towel in half width-wise.  Fold the finished edge under about 3-4 inches and sew.  See this tutorial for more details.

2.  Adhere Wonder Under fusible webbing to back side of felt and cut out eyes and nose.  Iron onto towel according to package directions.  For the pattern, I simply did a Google search for Hello Kitty images.  I picked out one I liked, enlarged it, and printed it out on card stock.

3.  Draw on whiskers with disappearing ink marker.

4.  Apply stabilizer (I like this one) to the back of the area where you will be sewing, and applique the eyes and nose using a tight zig-zag stitch.  Use black thread with a tight zig zag stitch to make the whiskers.

5.  To make the ears, cut triangles from the remaining half of your hand towel.  Leaving the bottom open, sew the sides together with a zig zag stitch.  (I find a zig zag holds together on the towel fabric better than a straight stitch.  Clip the upper corner and turn the ear right side out.  I used a capped pen to push the corner out.  Tip:  be careful not to push too hard, or the pen with come through your stitching.  (Please don't ask me how I know this!)

6.  Cut slits where you want the ears to be and, on the underside of the hood, use a zig zag stitch to adhere the ears to the hood.  See this tutorial for more pictures.

Not a great picture, but it shows the ear slits!

7.  Fold the hood, right sides together, and zig zag stitch the unfinished edge together.

8.  Keeping the hood inside out, zig zag sew a line half an inch from the point of the hood. Again, see this tutorial for pictures!

9.  Make a bow from felt or ribbon and hand sew in place.

Finished hood!

10.  Make a pleat in your large towel and sew the hood in place as shown in the Hooded Towel Tutorial.

12.  You could applique a name on the back if you like.  See this tutorial for more details.

11.  Enjoy the shouts of joy when your little one sees her hooded towel!

Lyla, my Hello Kitty Fan, was so excited when she unwrapped this.  In fact, she wore it around for several days.  Thanks so much to Crazy Little Projects for the inspiration!

Looking for other hooded towel projects?

Appliqued Hoodie Towel
Powercat Appliqued Hoodie Towel