Polar Bear Hooded Towel

I’ve talked about this before, but I love giving new babies hooded towels, so when my little sister had a new baby a little while ago, I knew exactly what I wanted to make for her. My daughter and I made a trip to Target to find a towel and she had the brilliant idea of making our newest family member a Polar Bear Hooded Towel! We were inspired by this little bear hooded towel that we tried out some time ago and loved.

I think our Polar Bear Hooded Towel turned out pretty cute and according to my sister, all of her other kids wish the towel was theirs!

If you want to make your own, here is what you need to do. First gather your materials.

Materials Needed:

• White bath towel
• White hand towel
• Small pieces of white and black fabric
• Thermoweb Heat’n Bond Lite Iron-on Adhesive-17″X45″ (affiliate link)
• White and Black thread
• Sewing machine
• Polar Bear Hooded Towel Pattern

The first thing we need to do is to cut out the pattern pieces from the pattern provided. Then attach the Heat’n Bond to your pieces of white and black fabric (follow instructions provided with your Heat’n Bond and make sure you use enough fabric to fit all of your pattern pieces). After you attach your Heat’n Bond there will be a paper backing on your fabric. We’ll peel that part off later. The paper backing also makes tracing the pattern pieces in the next step easy.

Trace the pattern pieces onto the paper backing of the the corresponding color of fabric and then cut out. You’ll end up with two black inner ear pieces, two black eyeball pieces, one black nose piece, and two white eye pieces.

Then cut your hand towel in half width-wise. One half of it will be used for the hood of the towel. The other half will be used to cut out your remaining pattern pieces. Four outer ear pieces and two snout pieces.

Now grab the half of the white hand towel that will be used for the hood and fold up the bottom part about 2 1/2 to 3 inches and sew straight across to secure it.

Now layer the two snout pieces together and sew around the bottom curved part, leaving the straight top part open.

After you sew around the bottom half, turn it right side out and it should look something like this.

Next we’ll work on the ears. Put two of the outer ear pieces together and sew around the top curved part, leaving the bottom straight edge open. Then repeat for the other ear.

Then turn right side out and they look like this.

Now we’re going to attach the other face pieces. Peel off the paper backing from the inner ear pieces and place them on the outer ear pieces as shown. Then use your iron to attach the pieces (according to the instructions on the Heat’n Bond). Then do the same with the nose piece.

Next, sew around the nose and the ears with a tight zig zag stitch. Here is a picture of the what the nose looks like, and you’ll have to use your imagination to see what the ears will look like since I forgot to take a picture (though you’ll see the ears a few pictures down).

Next, attach the eyes and eyeballs by peeling off your paper backing and ironing (use the Heat’n Bond’s instructions).

And then sew around the around the eyeballs with a tight zig zag stitch in black and then around the white part of the eye with a tight zig zag stitch in white.

Then attach the snout just under the eyes. I just use a regular straight stitch. Make sure it is nice and secure.

Now place the ears on the hood where you think they look right.

Cut two small slits in the hood where you want the ears to go.

Then stick the ears into the slits. Turn the hood over and attach the ears by sewing on the back side of the hood.

Then fold the hood in half and sew along the back of the hood, which is the right straight edge in the picture below.

Then open up your hood like shown below.

Sew a straight line a couple of inches below the point as the picture below shows.

Then cut off the point.

Now you are practically finished. All that you need to do is attach the hood to the bath towel and you are all done! Instructions for attaching the hood are found in this post here.

And its finished!

The towel is cute, but when its on a cute little one, it makes it even cuter! I can’t get enough of these sweet smiles!

If you like this Polar Bear Hooded Towel, check out my other hooded towel patterns:

• Fox Hooded Towel
• Yoda Hooded Towel
• Bear Hooded Towel

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!