Cozy Hooded Baby Towel

As soon as we got the new Michael Miller Organic Cotton Terry Cloth I knew I had to make something out of it. It is incredibly soft plus I really love that it’s organic. I decided to make a baby towel with a lined hood to really utilize its lush feel.

One of the only other fabrics that can match the Michael Miller Organic Cottons in softness is the Trefle Gauze. I used the cute, gender neutral, “Bee” pattern for the binding and sweet little hood. The two fabric’s create a subtle, natural looking palette, perfect for a new baby. Wrap it up with some bath goodies and you’ll have a stunning baby shower gift! –Molly

Note: The finished towel will be 33 inches square.

Designed by Purl Soho designer, Molly Schnick. Click here to see even more of Molly’s work!

The Materials 

• 1 1/2 yards of Michael Miller Organic Cotton Terry
• 3/4 yards of Trefle Gauze in “Bees”
• 1 spool Gutermann 100% cotton thread, color 1140
• 1 25mm Clover Bias Tape Maker

Wash, dry, and press your fabric. It will pre-shrink and get even softer!

Cut Fabrics

• Cut one 10.5-inch square out of both the Trefle gauze and the terry Cloth.
• Trim the remaining terry cloth into a 33-inch square, making sure to trim off the selvage edges.
• Cut five 2-inch strips across the width of the treffle fabric and trim off the selvage edge. Each strip will be 2-inches wide by approximately 42-inches long. These strips will become the binding.

Piece and Fold Binding

With the exception of the hood this towel is made just like a larger version of one of my napkins, obviously I’m a big fan of the bias tape maker!

Sew the Trefle 2-inch strips together along their 2-inch edges to form one long strip. Follow the instructions here from my wool blanket tutorial if you haven’t done this before.

Using the bias tape maker iron the long strip into binding tape. You can follow the pictures here in my napkin tutorial for this step.

Construct the Hood

• Line up the Trefle and the terry Cloth 10.5-inch squares, right sides together, as pictured above.

• Draw a diagonal line from corner to corner on the back of one of the squares, this will be your seam line.
• Pin along each side of the line as shown above.

• Sew along the line.

• Cut off one side of the square, leaving a 1/4-inch seam allowance.

• Iron the new triangle with the right sides out. The Terry side will be the lining of the hood.

• Pin the bottom edge of the hood.

• Top stitch the 1/4-inch from the fold as pictured above.

Attach Hood

• Pin the raw edges of the hood with the terry cloth side down to a corner of the 33-inch square of terry cloth with the terry side up.

• Zig Zag stitch around raw edges, sewing the hood to the towel. Make sure the hood is sewn on securely. This will make binding the hood area much easier.

Attach Binding

• Pin your binding all the way around the towel. For a comprehensive how-to on this step click here.

Use a lot of pins on this project. The terry cloth is very stretchy so you need to hold it in place.

As you can see from the picture below my sewing was a little (“loveabley?”) wonky. Even with my hundreds of pins the terry cloth was a bit unruly. Does anyone out there have any good tips for sewing on terry cloth?

Sew all the way around your towel, using your machine’s walking foot. To learn how to finish the binding neatly click here.  You’re all done!

Update 2024: You can explore our current collection of beautiful fabrics and supplies on our page of Sewing Tools + Notions!