Super duper easy towel tutorial- and first guest blog mommy!

Hello everyone-

We are back from a great weekend of skiing, hotubbing and chilling in Girdwood. Check out the Oh, the places you will go for pictures of that trip. This post is packed with info. I reccomend the best bath tub for babies and I have my first guest blogger, Martina who created an amazing tutorial about the super duper bath towel...check it out!

Ocooe loves to be snuggled in her super duper towel after bath time.

Here is the infamous euro bath bucket. We love it because the baby's whole body is covered. It keeps her nice and warm and she loves bath time. We use the Prince Lionheart wash POD Bathe found on Amazon. Our friend Diana let us borrow the pod and she had gone through several different baby baths before deciding this one was the best...so we benefitted from her experiences.

And here is the super duper bath towel I received from Jordyn. Pardon that I look as if I am posing for a mug shot.

When Ocoee was first born we received a package from a former student of mine that included a towel....but this was no ordinary towel. It was a super duper cool towel. Thanks Jordyn!

We love this towel. LOVE! the towel is called an apron towel. It slips over your head so that you a.) stay dry during the spishy splash part of bath time and b.) are hands free to focus on the baby and c. ) can immediately scoop the baby up in the towel for cuddle and dry time.

What a brilliant concept. So I did some research. Jordyn had made the towel for me so I wanted to share how to make these with my blog readers. I didn't find a tutorial online but did see a company selling these for $25-45 each!

Well I knew this could be done for cheaper....

It was time to call in reinforcements. I called my friend and mommy-in-crime Martina for help. She is as crafty as I am not. She took one look at it, whipped out her phone to take pictures and exclaimed, "I can do that!"

And she did. Plus as our first guest blogger she made a tutorial for you!

Let me give you some info about Martina. Her beautiful son, Ellis Henry just celebrated his first month on this earth a few days ago. She and I were pregnant together and even though we are quite different the journey has forever bonded us. We even came to some of the same conclusions on things. Like kids with vowels at the beginning of their names are cool and cloth is easy!

Read about her journey in motherhood here.

And for you crafty folk out there here is the tutorial. You really must have this towel!

Materials:

1 bath towel (traditional size; 30” x
1/3 yard+ of 45” wide coordinating fabric (flannel or calico) (“Fabric A”)
1/4 yard flannel fabric (“Fabric B”)
thread
scissors
iron
ruler

1. Fold down one end of the bath towel approximately 10.5”

2. Find the center of the fold (I usually fold the towel in half length-wise and mark the center with a pin, then unfold it again), and cut out a 9.5” diameter circle centered in that location. It might be easiest to cut a circle out of paper first, then fold it in half and lay it over the material. This hole will be the neck hole for the towel apron.

3. Cut a 4” x 45” strip from Fabric A (easy to do because the width is already 45”!)

4. Cut two 3” x 45” strips from Fabric A (they only need to be slightly longer than the width of your towel--my towel was 30” wide, so I only needed it to be 31”--but it’s easiest to just cut two more strips from the end of the piece of fabric)

5. Cut one 6.5” x 45” strip from Fabric B (again, it only needs to be one inch longer than your towel’s width).

6. Fold the 4” strip of Fabric A in half and press.

7. Open up the 4” strip and fold each side into the center, with wrong sides of the material together. Press.

8. Pin the pressed strip of fabric around the inside of the hole that you cut in the towel, so that the raw edge of the towel is touching the pressed center “seam” of the 4” strip, and each folded side of the strip is on an opposite side of the towel.

9. Sew around the neck hole with the presser foot at the outside edge of Fabric A. After you’ve finished, check the other side of the towel to make sure that you caught the opposite side of the folded fabric strip in the seam. If not, stitch those portions in place.

10. Next, lay one of the 3” strips of Fabric A on top of the 6.5” strip of Fabric B, with right sides together. Sew them together with 1/4 in seam allowance.

11. Flip around the two-piece fabric block, and lay the second 3” strip on top of Fabric B with edges matched and right sides together. Sew them together with 1/4 in seam allowance.

12. Press the seams flat

13. Trim off the excess length of the material so that it is one inch longer than the width of your towel (if you began with 45”, you will trim off 14” for a 30” wide towel)

14. Press under 1/2 in around the entire perimeter of the fabric block.

15. Place the fabric block approximately in the location that you want it to appear on the towel apron and pin it in place. The second image shows what the underside of the material should look like.

16. Sew around the perimeter of the fabric block with the edge of the presser foot on the edge of the fabric (1/4 in seam allowance, approximately).

17. Your finished product!

You may add embellishments from here. In the original towel apron that Janelle received, there is a flower that was created by cutting a circle out of fabric and finishing the seams, then bunching it and securing it to the towel by stitching the center. Alternatively, you could quilt on appliqué patches. Or, to keep it simple, you could leave it as is.

Happy bathing!!!

Cheers

Janelle and guest blogger Martina