Hooded Towels - A Tutorial

I love the way the kids smell right after a bath. It's kind of nostalgic, too. Makes me think of bath time when I was a little girl and all the loving attention showered on me by my own mother.

There is simply nothing more delicious than the smell of a clean baby (toddler, child, etc).

I also love the routine of bundling them up in a blanket fresh out of the bath. Pulling the hooded towel over their wet curls and snuggling the towel tight across their body. I love those hooded towels! I hate the cost...

You can look all over the internet for hooded towel tutorials, but this is the best I've found so far! At Infarrantly Creative. Here's how it goes:

You need:

1 hand towel (1 hand towel will make 2 hooded towels - cha-ching!)

1 bath towel

(You can get these so cheap when they go on sale. Both towels cost me $5 total! Woohoo! :) )

1. Measure 10 inches up the hand towel. Cut all the way across.

2.Fold hand towel in half so that finished edge meets finished edge, cut edge meets cut edge.

3. Zig-zag stitch along the cut edge, sewing that edge shut.

4. Zig-zag stitch a triangle in the corner...the side of your newly sewn edge. Cut off fabric inside that triangle.

5. Turn your hood inside out so that the stitching is on the inside. Admire your handi-work!

Now grab the towel.

6. Fold your towel in half lengthwise and mark the center with a pin (red pin in the picture).

7. Measure 4 inches out from the center pin on either side. Mark that measurement (green pins in the picture).

8. Fold the edge of the towel so that the outer pins (green) meet the center pin (red). This sounds cofusing, but looking at the picture should help. This will give you three layers that you will be sewing through.

9. Matching up the center of the towel and the center of the hood, take the hood and pin the bottom of the hood to the top of the towel (where you just pinned).

10. Straight stitch the hood and towel together.

11. Zig-zag stitch the hood and towel together. This gives the place where the hood and towel meet more strength. (Thanks, Becki!)

12. Admire your handiwork! Now you can add any type of embellishment that you might want...the really fun part!

Look at that adorable little pleat!

I would love to see your final projects if you decide to make this. And, rest assured, my fellow newbie sewers...it's easy peasy!

How to Hem Jeans (And still look cool...)

So...a few months, maybe a year ago, I scored big with some on sale (clearance) jeans from Ann Taylor Loft. I love me some Loft clothes and clearance is the best way for me to get them!

The only problem with these jeans is that they are, oh...about 4 inches too long! And I'm not a shorty, either! Guess I discovered why they were on clearance.

I had to hem them or it was a complete waste to get them. Enter lots of on-line research...because the way I know how to hem pants is the way I learned to in 6th grade Home Ec, and, although it gets it done...Ew!!

Here's how to do it:

Disclaimer: I am a newbie sewer, my lines are not straight, the directions are not perfect...but I hope they help you!

First, put the jeans on.

Fold each pant leg one giant roll up so that the bottom of the leg of the jean (bottom of the roll) is where you want the jean's length to be.

Pin it. Anywhere. Just pin it so that roll/cuff stays in place.

Get your neglected scary trusty sewing maching out.

Your stitching will be up against the original hem to the jeans. (Actually, this will continue to be the hem of the jeans...pretty cool, huh?)

Straight stitch around the cuff right up against the hem. (The stitch that looks like ---- on your machine.)

Now, when you're finished with both legs, fold the cuff the right way in. Just tuck the extra fabric into the leg of the jeans.

Try them on again.

If the jeans are at the length where you need them to be, you can do one of two things.

1. Cut the extra cloth off

2. Keep it tucked up there (if it's not too much)

Voila! See...you CAN be cool with hemmed jeans!