Hooded Poncho Towel

My son has a hooded towel that he likes to use after his bath, only he doesn't like that it doesn't stay on by itself. It is the traditional style of hooded towel where the hood is attached to one side. He wants me to add a button to the front so it won't fall off, but I wanted to try a design that wouldn't fall off. I saw a blog post on Make It and Love It a towel that was turned into a poncho. When I went back to look at it again, the post had been removed. She folded the towel in half (hamburger style) and then cut a slit for the head. She sewed ribbon to the cut edges and it fit on the child like a poncho. I liked that the towel stayed on, but I wanted to figure out how to add on a hood.

I then saw a hooded towel poncho on Delia Creates. She cut her slit for the head lengthwise, rather then from front to back.

I then decided to try and incorporate the two and go for it.

I am not the best photographer or the best at getting pictures in the order I want them, but I will describe the process as best as I can.

I started with a regular sized towel for the poncho and a hand towel for for the hood. I folded the bath towel in half and then cut a slit in the middle. It ended up being about 13 inches long. I made sure it fit over his head. I serged the neck opening to keep it from fraying. Then I moved onto the hand towel for the hood.

I folded the hand towel and put it on my sons head to see how to fit the shape of his head. You can kind of see my pin placement on the towel above. I created a curve 2/3 from the front of the hood edge and then curved it down at an angle so it went down to the bottom corner of the towel. I sewed this, finished the edges, and cut it. The pointed angle is important as I cut my head opening so that there would be a V-shape in the front and back of the poncho.

Here is the hood sewn in...

and the finished hooded poncho.

I pinned the hood and towel right sides together. I cut a strip of towel 2" wide from the scraps of the hood to finish the front neck opening. I sewed around the entire neck opening and then top stitched the front binding down.

Here is a view of the back of the towels while handing.

My son loves that it doesn't fall off.

Coat for my little tractor lover

My 2 year old saw this John Deer fabric and told me he was taking it home. I decided he could take home 1 yard and I would make something for him out of it. I asked him if he wanted a blanket or a coat and he said a coat.
I used Kwik Sew pattern 2994. I used brown corduroy that I had actually cut into pants for me but never made. I just cut the jacket pieces out. I used the tractor fabric for the lining and put scrap fleece in between the two layers for warmth. I made the jacket reversible so my little guy could decide which way he wanted to wear the coat.

I put buttons on both sides (lining side and corduroy side) so that the coat could button from either side. I hand sewed the buttons on leaving some ease to turn them into shank-type buttons.

Snow White

Here is a Snow White costume that I made for my 2 month old. She has dark hair and looked perfect as Snow White.


I started with Jalie pattern 3133 for the top. I cut off the bottom part of the onsie pattern and shaped it in a V. My favorite part is the sleeves. Most Snow White Costumes use ribbons or glue on a tear-drop shape for the red part of the sleeves. I personally don't like they way that looks. So, I created what I thought the original would have really looked like in the sleeve. I used the puff sleeve from the Jalie pattern, but cut it into 4 equal pieces. I added seam allowances to each piece, and then sewed in a 1 1/2 inch strip of red fabric between each piece. Then I matched up the blue parts together at the top and bottom and basted them closed. When the sleeve was finished, the red parts peek through.I made a matching bow and shoes. The bow pattern came from Butterick 3673 and the shoes came from Simplicity 2278.
The entire project was completed using t-shirts so that it would be soft and comfortable for my baby to wear.

Dot-to-dot and matching quiet book page

The dot-to-dot is another copy of Creating Sarah's quiet book ideas. It uses magnets sewn into the fabric. My magnets are larger than the ones Sarah used and work for my 2-year old. I plan on making a couple more dot-to-dots when I have time.

The page on the left is my idea. I just took some scrap fleece (most of the colors are just strips from some rainbow fleece I had) and cut out rectangles. The "towels" are attached with velcro.

Fix my hair Quiet book page

I honestly can't remember where I saw this idea, but I will update to give credit when I find it in my notes.
This page is musin backed in denim. The left side has 3 ribbons sewn into the page at the top and bottom and then down the middle. The hair bows were from my stash that my sister gave to me (she made them) when my niece outgrew them. I used fabric markers to draw on the face. The hair is made of yarn. I cut long lengths of yarn (I didn't measure how long) to go from the bottom of the page around the head shape to the bottom of the other side of the page. I then sewed them down at the top of the head. Next I sewed the yarn hair down at each side of the top of the head to keep the hair off of her eyes. I trimmed her hair last to make it even on the bottom.

My kids love this page and spend a lot of time putting all of the hair bows in her hair.

Marble Maze quiet book page

I have been following Sarah's quiet book ideas from Creating Sarah and gradually making my own based off her her ideas. This is my knock off of her marble maze. I used muslin for the inside and denim for the backing. The drawing and writing are done in fabric markers that I bought at Walmart. You can ignore the blue pencil lines (I drew in 2" lines to base my maze on with washable fabric pencil -I just haven't washed it out yet). The 2" mazes are a little large for the marbles, but work for my 2-year old.

Magic blanket binding/Baby blankets

I came across a tutorial on the blog Family, Fabric, and Fun for magic blanket binding. With this method, the front piece is cut smaller than the back, and the extra part of the back fabric becomes the binding.

The monkey blanket below is my second attempt at this method. I used fleece for the backing and then sewed down a strips of satin material as a border on the fleece. Then I followed the tutorial for sewing the blanket together. My corners didn't come out completely flat as the satin and fleece didn't stretch quite the same way (I tried to treat them as one piece of fabric), but I think it turned out cute.

The flannel blanket below was my first attempt. It turned out really well. After washing it again, the back and front don't completely stay in place, so I want to sew across the middle of the blanket a few times to keep everything in place.
The matching burp cloth is a from a free pattern and tutorial by Homemade by Jill. I use this all of the time. I am not in love with the ragged edge look, so when I make more, I plan on enclosing the raw edges.