the ten minute towel

I love hooded towels for kids. They are easy to use and oh so adorable. My tiny man is no longer tiny though. He needs a "man" towel as my husband put it. But I am so not ready for Seth to be done with his hooded style towels. Thus a compromise must be struck before bathing can continue! (Just kidding.)

I have seen various ideas to make your own hooded towels for kids. It was time to make my own. Here is my first photo tutorial so you can make one too!

1. While I was at Target I picked up two regular size bath towels and two hand towels. (Note - I made two towels - you only need one of each for one towel.) I went for towels from the same line we already use in our bathroom so the theme sticks - bright!


2. Fold each towel in half the long side and mark the half point with a pin.


3. Using your pins as a guide place the hand towel with right sides to the bath towel along the long edge and pin together.

4. Make your stitches as close to the edge as possible to prevent a scratchy seem on your hood. Always do a back stitch at the beginning and end to strengthen your towel.

5. Lay the towel out flat and you have this odd shape to work with as you finish the hood.


6. Focus on the hand towel now. Fold the towels to the center once again with the seam you just created sticking out at you. You want to me sure that all your seems stick on the inside of your completed hooded towel! Pin the edge of the towel and sew. (It's hard to see my pins in this photo but you would pin the far right side.) Again make sure to sew right at the edge always doing a back stitch at the beginning and end.


7. There you have it. The ten minute towel is complete and my son once again has an oh so cute hooded towel.


8. Now you can see that there is plenty of room in the hood so if you wish you could cut down your hand towel or some who have gone before me have used a wash cloth. It also depends on the size of child and towel you are working with. I love this overly generous towel as it provides great warmth and comfort and it will last another growth spurt or two.


These are a great gift idea for a little friend while the weather is still cold. Or better yet come summer make some hooded beach towels for those days at the pool! I think there may be some gifts in my future and even better than a ten minute project: the two towels cost me $8 total!

Homemade Hotsling

Now it may not look like it works all that perfectly but let's keep in mind that I am just a day shy of 38 weeks pregnant in this photo and things "hang" a bit oddly! (That would be Baby Irwin - my former, now Seth's, Cabbage Patch Doll - I used for a mannequin.)

I have really wanted a Hotsling or shoulder sling to use with this baby. I know that hands-free will be much more necessary with a preschooler of my own and two day care children in our home also. I kept watching craigslist-mpls for a good deal but nothing in close proximity in my size ever came up. So I started looking around for patterns and who else makes a similar product.

I found some really cute designs on Etsy, but it made me think, if other people are making and selling them maybe I should try to make my own. That led to more looking. I then found that right on Etsy I could purchase a pattern but easier still I could find one online for free here. However after reading the pattern suggestions I just got more confused about to pull this off. I needed more assistance, off to Hancock Fabrics.

At Hancock's I pulled out the old fashioned books of patterns and found pay dirt. On sale for $1.50 was a baby sling pattern. It allowed me to see the cut out form and exact measurements that had so confused me previously. Good old McCall's #M5678 if you are interested.

Using what I learned with the online pattern and what I received from McCall's I made my own over the shoulder baby holder! The whole project took me about only an hour to sew. I always pre-wash my fabrics so that took longer than putting it all together!

I tried to show you here how it is folded. The curve is where the baby bottom will sit, soon I hope. I used corduroy fabric so it would be slightly stretchy but also thick and resilient. There is a black interior and the multi-colored stripe on the outside which allows me to have a plain color if so choose. Totally reversible and washable and ready to carry a baby. Now if I could just give birth!

Something Borrowed, Something New

Taking something borrowed...

Over the summer while we were in Nebraska traveling I borrowed a Moses basket from some friends. It had a simple liner that was well used and did not fit well any longer so I decided to make something new. By chance I ended up with some time alone this week and ran to the fabric store in search of ideas. I found a cute print that I figure could go either boy or girl and some adorable ribbon to match. Through the course of about four hours I pulled this off.

...and turning it into something new.

If you could get a closer look you would see plenty of imperfections but it is my own creation from scratch, without pre-planning I might add. I just started cutting and sewing and eyeballing. I am happy with it and our little one will have a cozy place to relax for the first few months of life.

The Blanket in a Pillow

I love to sew but rarely ever have the time to set up my machine and get a project done. To sew is to lose sleep and that is something I rarely want to give up, since there is never any extra. But this year I wanted to make something special for Seth for Christmas. He loves the movie Cars and all the characters so when I saw this material I just had to run with it. I found an easy pattern for a pillow in a quilt and got stared, months ago. It still wasn't early enough as I was sitting up late in the night on Monday of this week quilting it all together. All in all it turned out great and Seth does love it. I am glad I put the time in though I may think about getting started even sooner on the next one.

Since I wanted it to have a "quilt" look, I actually pieced together the top instead of just choosing one large piece of fabric. On the border I appliqued yellow pieces onto the black background with fusible web and some stitching so it looked like a road to drive his cars on. It was a lot of work but I love how it turned out!

The back is all one piece of Cars fabric and then the pillow part gets sewn on there too. Basically the whole blanket folds into the pocket with his name on it. It reminds me of the old days when you went to school and had a "Rest Time" blanket. I hope he can enjoy it for years to come.

Some Tips:

1. The fabric you choose will shrink, maybe a lot, so you may have to re plan the size of your top squares if you choose to quilt as I did.
2. The pillow stays on better if you just sew it on last after all the quilting is done.
3. Choose a durable thread and lots of it.
   
4. Start every new project with a new needle. You will be "sew" much happier with how it works, especially on the thick areas of the quilt when sewing it all together!
5. Pin, pin, pin! The more you pin the less bunching you will have when you quilt it all together.
   

Can't Beat Hands Free

Seth helped me try out my new Mei Tai.

With caring for three children now, under the age of 3 by the way, I am finding that I wish I had more hands. (In fact, I wonder if God gave mothers only two hands just to keep us humble and completely dependent on Him.) In hopes of having some hand free moments I decided to look into a baby carrier. I remembered that my cousin Emily had made one and decided to take a closer look. Here is her post on all things baby carrier: My Mei Tai.

I took her suggestions and using two patterns: the Man Tai for all sewing directions (great photos) and Basic Mei Tai for directions to cut the fabric, created a great little carrier. I am so pleased with how it turned out and can't wait to try it with baby Claire. It does however work with Seth as a backpack style and will come in handy on those long hikes when he decides his feet are too tired to walk another step!

Here are some photos to give you a better look.

It looks like a giant colorful frog all laid out.

Seth didn't want to be in the picture, can you tell?

Here are some things I recommend if you give it a try:

1. Use 60" fabric and get 2 yrds. (If you want different colors for straps then look at lengths in advance to get exactly what you want.) It will shrink!
2. I used upholstery fabric so it was thick and sturdy, yet my sewing machine could handle the layers.
3. I used 6 oz polyester batting for shoulder straps and the head area.
4. It took over 250 yrds. of heavy duty polyester thread to finish the project.
5. Make sure that your straps are long enough! My are on the short side due to the shrinking of my fabric. (I lucked out being a smaller person but it will not work on a pregnant mother or larger women.)
6. If sewing is not your best ability make sure to pick thread that will not be so obvious on your pattern.
7. I skipped the pocket but you make the call on that one.
8. I highly recommend giving it a try. It was so rewarding to finish a project and have it actually be usable.

Want more info check out the source of idea, Kozy Carrier, and look for more ways to use your carrier too!