Pirate Towel

I have this towel from when I was a kid.  It's pink.  It has my name (first AND last) on it.  It's old.  It's worn out.  I love it!

from picturesdepot

Before my daughter was born, I made her a towel.  With a hood.  It was waay too big to use when she was a newborn, but now that's she's almost 6 months old, it's the perfect size!  And I know she'll still be able to use when she's a toddler and (hopefully) beyond.

For Christmas, I decided to make my best friend's almost 4-year old boy a hooded towel.  Didn't happen.  I told her it would be more like a Valentine's present.

from amazon

He likes pirates.  I love Pirates of the Caribbean.   Johnny Depp is the coolest pirate, ever!

Found this:  Pickles Nummy Towel, on amazon.  $32+.  Didn't have great reviews on quality of towel; they said it was falling apart after one wash!  So, I'll make my own!  

This might be the coolest thing I've ever made.  So far.  I have my mom's sewing machine.  It doesn't do anything special.  But it sews, so i can't complain.  For the longest time, I couldn't get it to do a zig zag stitch. I thought it was me.  I finally took it to the "sewing machine hospital" and had a checkup.  The timing (or something) was off, and it's now fixed.  Yay!  That means I can do appliques!

This is pretty much my first project, ever, where I've appliqued anything on.  And maybe that's why I am so excited about it.  It. Is. Awesome!

Here's mine!

I used felt for all the applique stuff - I really hope it stands up to lots of washings!  and some pieces of fleece for the hook parts.

Here's a couple close-ups and works in progress:

The Hood:

I left the bandana tail free so it moves around.  I'm not sure how this piece will hold up in the wash and such, but it was cute, so I left it!

The parrot and the belt:  

I think there is something funky about my yellow thread...i had THE hardest time doing the beak and the belt buckle.  I kept having thread throwup all over the back.  I changed the thread to do the next color, and with no other adjustments, everything worked fine!  Lesson learned on that!

The hook and hand holds: 

There are hand holds on the "inside" of the towel, so you can stick your hand in there and wrap it around you or pretend to stab someone with your hook - not that I encourage stabbing other children!  HA! 

I used a beige color thread for my bobbin color and in most places you can't see the color from the front.  If you look closely at the pic on the right, you can see the yellow outline from the beak.  That yellow thread was a nightmare!

So there it is.  My towel.  That I'm giving away.  So it's not really mine.  But I like it all the same.  I hope the "kid" does too! 

oh, and in case you want to make one of your own...make a hooded towel.  I recommend PRE-washing BEFORE you cut anything!  There are lots of tutorials around for hooded towels...here and here are the ones I used.

I included a pic of the pattern I used for the skull/crossbones and the parrot outline (the feet was a heart).  All the pieces and parts were easy, it was just a little time consuming appliqueing it all on there!