Little Fishy Towel

As a baby shower gift, someone from my church made Sadie an adorable hooded towel with mouse ears on it. Being made from a full sized bath towel, it has proven to be far more useful than the usual super-thin baby towels you can buy in stores. This project is a slightly different take on the same general idea. :)

Cost: less than $15
Time: about an hour
*Requires a sewing machine

You'll need:

• 1 full sized bath towel
• 1 matching hand towel
• matching thread
• cotton fabric - any color or pattern to go with the towels
• 2 googly eyes
• washable fabric glue

Start this project by making the fins and tail. Print the templates that are at the end of this post (sorry- there is nothing fancy about them, lol), and cut them out of your fabric. To print them, click the picture, then in that window select File, Print Preview, select Portrait and make sure the scale is set to 150% before printing. :) You'll need 1 tail, 1 dorsal fin, and 2 fins. Using your machine's largest stitch, sew along one edge and cut your thread, leaving yourself a few inches of tail. Repeat along the other edge. Pull the thread to gather fabric on each edge, tying a knot when the fabric is gathered to the appropriate size (fins and tail should be gathered as tightly as possible; dorsal fin only needs slightly gathered). When all edges are gathered, stitch the piece closed along the gathers. Trim off excess.





Next, make the hood. To do this, fold the hand towel in half, and cut out the hood shape (should look something like a J) leaving the towel's finished edge uncut to be the edge around the face. Place the dorsal fin between the layers, stitched side even with the edge of the towel, and stitch along the curved cut, then flip outside right to see the outside of the hood.  The dorsal fin should stand up at the top/back of hood. To attach the hood to the towel, fold the towel in half to find the middle. Line the middle of the hood up with the middle of the towel's edge, and use a zig-zag stitch to sew it together.

To sew the fins and tail on, start by figuring out the placement (for fins to be on the sides of a wrapped up baby, they will be just about even with the outside edges of the hood, about 3" down from the towel's edge; the tail will be in the middle of the towel about 3" below the fins). Holding the towel flat in one hand, place the stitched edge of the fin or tail perpendicular to the towel and pinch the towel to hold it in place. Flip your hand over so that the towel folds over the fin, and sew along the length of the fin. This will allow it to stand out without raw edges showing. Now all that's left are those googly eyes on top of the hood! Glue them on and let them dry according to the directions on your glue. :)






Fin Templates :)