Hooded Lion Towel

My husband and I are expecting a baby this September. My husband likes lions so I decided to make a lion hooded towel. You can totally skip the lion part of this tutorial and just make a plain old hooded towel. I plan to make a plain one as well.

Here's the final product. I don't have a cute child to model it yet, so the cutting mat with have to do.Want to make your own? You'll need:

• One bath towel
• One hand towel
• Sewing machine, thread, etc.
• Felt (if you plan to make your towel a lion).

Start with your hand towel. Find the middle and cut it in half (I forgot to take a picture of these two steps with my yellow towel...oops). I used a rotary cutter but fabric scissors will do.
Once you cut your towel in half, fold it in half again (hamburger, not hotdog) and grab something round. An embroidery hoop or plate will work. The edge my finger is on is your cut edge, and is the edge you'll be sewing on.
Trace and cut your rounded edge and then sew it together. It doesn't have to be rounded if you don't want it to be. But I don't dig the pointy hood look. It'll look like this. You can see the seam start at the top left corner and follow the curve around to the bottom near the middle.
So now your hood is essentially done. Unless you plan to lion it up. If not, go ahead and skip a few steps.

To make the ears, cut strips of fabric (mine were about two inches wide) out of the remaining part of the hand towel. Sew them down one side to make tubes. Turn your tubes inside out and then sew the sides together so they look like this.
With the rest of the hand towel, I cut two triangles and sewed them to two corners of the bath towel (Be sure to hem that outside edge). This is so the kid can put their little hands in there and hold the towel around themselves. And because I thought it was cute.

**Note: I attached to two triangle pieces after I pleated the towel (steps below). If you do it first, just make sure to pleat the towel on the same edge your little hand holds are...so it'll all be at the top when wrapped around your little one***
Now get your felt. I cut 4 strips of brown felt. Each strip is 5" by 24". Fleece would work too, or a knit that doesn't fray.
Grab two of your brown felt strips, stack them on top of each other, and line them up on what will be the front or brim of the hood. I measured 2 1/2 inches out and then drew a little line on my sewing machine in washable marker so I was sure to sew right down the middle of the strip. You can't tell, in this picture but the right side is lined up with the towel. So your "mane" will start about 2 1/2 inches away from the front of the hood.
It's wise to pin it on. I didn't. I don't like using a lot of pins. My mom would be bugged that I didn't pin though. I did however pin the ears on beneath the brown felt, right where I'd want them (a few inches away from the center seam on both sides). So when I sew the brown felt on, I also am sewing the ears on.
Result:
Fold your felt toward the front of the hood and grab (as pictured). Then grab your next two pieces. Sew those right down the middle (you could do a basting stitch first to make sure you're centered) just behind the first set of felt. Mine ended up being about a quarter inch apart.
Once your 4 felt strips (2 sets of 2) are attached, start clipping them. I cut every inch. Make sure to stay about 1/4 inch away from your seam.
Now, the lion hood is done. On to the bath towel. Grab your towel and find the middle (Marked with a pin).
I wanted my towel pleated. You can skip this if you want to. If you want pleats, measure 4 inches away from your center point on both sides and mark with a pin. I chose 4 because I thought it looked good, feel free to make your pleat larger or smaller.
Fold the towel so the outer pins meet the middle one.

Then pin it in place. Do this to both sides.
It should look like this. Then sew along the edge to keep the pleat in place.
It will look like this on the outside of the towel.
Find the middle of the hood, pin it to the middle of the towel, and attach.

In hind sight, I should have done this next part before I sewed the triangles to the towel, but I decided to sew some felt in the shape of lion paws on. I just drew what the paws on a piece of paper and cut them out to use as a pattern. I then hand sewed them on.
So, there's the hooded lion towel tutorial. I hope it wasn't too confusing. If it was, feel free to contact me and I'll answer any questions.