SHARK Hooded Towel Tutorial

As I have mentioned like a hundred times my kids are on the swim team here in town. They practice every morning M-F and have meets EVERY Saturday morning BRIGHT and EARLY! Any way the team is called CCBS Sharks and the colors are RED, WHITE, and BLUE! Pretty cool, right?

Well, this year since we did not have to buy team suits, I decided to make the kids

HOODED towels for their meets.

Well, at least I got them done in time for

CHAMPIONSHIPS this Saturday!

And since I could not find a tutorial for how to make one of these fancy hooded towel I decided to make one and share it with you all! AND if you know me at all it is gonna be

EASY or this mama says forget it!

SO, let's begin.

Step 1: Find a large clean surface. Towels are pretty big and there will be a lot of flipping towels, ironing towels, cutting towels, sewing towels, etc.

Gather all your supplies: 1 large gray towel, 2 gray hand towel,  1 red hand towel, 1 white wash cloth, black and white felt sheets or remnants, matching thread, scissors, sewing machine, iron, fusible wed, and fabric if you want to personalize with applique.

Get your sewing machine and thread ready so that we can

just jump right in right after we,

Fold one gray hand towel in half like so,

and cut. Set aside 1 of the halves for a later date when

you want to make another hooded towel. With your remaining

half of a hand towel you need to fold it in half again. RAW edges

together and at the top. (See below)

You will want to find a template for the shark eyes. I used

a paisley template. Place your template on to your white felt

and cut (you will need to of these. I cut them at the same time by

folding the felt in half.)

Once your "eyes" have been cut out place them about

2" below the raw edges and maneuver until you like their position.

Make they are even on both sides.

PIN and sew using a ZIG-ZAG stitch.

Now for the PUPIL or black part of the eye. I free handed

an oval/circle template and cut it out using the black felt.

Pin and sew exactly like the white part, using a zig-zag

stitch.

Keeping all of the same edges together just turn it rights

sides together.

Sew the RAW/cut edges together first using a straight stitch

and then a zig-zag stitch.  You should now have what looks like a

lonely hood with 2 eyes.

******UPDATE: I MISSED A STEP********

SWITCH OVER TO BLACK THREAD FOR GILLS

START YOUR FIRST IN PROPORTION WITH THE EYES

USING A 0.7 (TIGHT) ZIG-ZAG STITCH SEW

A STRAIGHT LINE ABOUT A FINGER LENGTH

OR SO.

TO MAKE 3 SO THE GILLS LOOK REALISTIC JUST

USE YOUR FIRST AS GUIDE AS PICTURES ABOVE.

WHEN YOU FINISH WITH THE GILLS ON BOTH SIDES

SWITCH BACK TO YOUR GRAY THREAD AND

A STRAIGHT STITCH 

TEETH TIME - WHITE WASH CLOTH AND A SHARPIE

Get out your white wash cloth and fold it in half like pictures above, into a triangle shape.

Draw some sharp and ferocious looking shark teeth on with a SHARPIE or PERMANENT

marker. Do worry about drawing perfect lines or that it is permanent. Have you seen a sharks mouth?

Once it is all drawn get ready to sew again.

Using a straight stitch, sew over the lines of teeth that you just

made on the washcloth.

You will have to turn it a lot. Back and

Forth, back and forth. I back stitched at the points.

You do not have to but I thought I would mention it.

See it looks exactly the same as before but now the

line is darker and your teeth will have more

"MEAT."

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

CAREFULLY CUT OUT YOUR TEETH. Making

sure not to snip where you sewed. Once you have that

all finished find the center of the teeth and pin it to the center

top of the hood opening. Look closely in the picture below if I

am not making sense. Center of the finished edges just below the

eyes.  

ZIG-ZAG  stitch the pieces together and

look at what we have here! See how easy this has been

so far? But wait we are not quite done with the hood.

You are certainly welcome to skip this part but I think

it gives your shark character.

Now grab that red hand towel and cut it in half just

like we did with the gray one.

Throw the raw cut edges on the sewing machine

and

Straight stitch and ziz-zag just like before.

DO NOT turn it inside out or anything because

we are going to hide the stitching inside of the

HOOD!

Just straight stitch all around the edges

Like so. And then Check it out.

NOW, it looks like the inside

of a real Shark's Mouth.

ScArY! LOL!

DaaaaNAAA, Da...Na...EAT MY BUBBLES!

(That is what all the little swimmers write on their backs!

So cute and funny!)

At this point you should have enough half-sized hand towels to make another hooded towel, just need to get another regular bath towel. I think it is a pretty economical little craft actually.

NOW for the FIN!

You should have one more gray hand towel.

Lay it out and fold it in half to make to right triangles.

And carefully cut from one corner to the next.

*Side Note:

A: Hopefully the picture are explaining the process better than my words.

B: Yes, that ironing board cover is DISGUSTING! If you would like to make me a new one,

I would gladly accept it! HA!*

JA today and update.

I had to piece my "interfacing together to fit the entire fin but only because this is the second one I made. And just FYI after you iron all the pieces together with the ULTRA HOLD heat bond you cannot even tell.

AND PLEASE note that the raw cut edges DO get any of the Steam-A-Seam. You will need that are to sew the fin on to the "body."

AND this part is totally optional I just did it so the fin would stick out more. You could just sew the pieces together and sew it to the bath towel and be done.

********UPDATE: HERE IS THE INTERFACING I USED*******

OKAY, now that everything is heat seamed together.

Time to sew that fin on and then finish this baby up.

Fold you Regular size bath towel in half like a hamburger NOT a hot dog.

Separate the raw cut edges of the fin and use a ZIG-ZAG

stitch to apply it to the main towel in the center just like below.

You will have a little tip left over at the top of the towel.

NOT TO FRET just snip it off because you are getting ready to attach

your hood right over it.

I just used the sandwich method again

Gray HOOD on top

Gray BODY in the Middle

Red HOOD in the inside

and ZIG-ZAGged the pieces

together.

AND WE ARE ALL FINISHED!

The hardest part of the project...

APPLIQUE! I need more practice with that!

Well, what do you all think?

DID I totally CONFUSE YOU ALL?

I hope not!

I swear I will get better at making tutorials.

I need more practice with that too!

Oh NO, little Bear those SHARKS

are gonna EAT you!

Giggle, Giggle, Giggle!

Aren't they the cutest?

Watch out swimmers...the SHARKS are gonna

getcha!

Well, even if you do not make one I hope you enjoyed my ramblings trying to explain how I made mine.

HUGS~ Ya'll

Jenni

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