DIY Wraparound Towel

DIY

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This easy sewing tutorial is a great gift for all the swim loving kids in your life! With just a store bought towel, some elastic and Velcro, you can whip up a great hands-free DIY towel for your little ones.

Motherhood ain’t a walk in the park, considering all the things we have to protect our children from.  Most of the time I just choose to not think about the crazy dangers that could lurk around any corner and threaten my kids…otherwise I’d go crazy!  But I do think a lot about what foods and products enter our home since my purchasing power is one thing that I have complete control over. (Then again, maybe “control” isn’t the right word to use when describing my shopping habits, if you know what I mean.  Hehe.)

It’s not always easy to know what to avoid in your household cleaning products, but I recently learned that sulfates can strip away important anti-microbial proteins and oils that our bodies create to protect us.  Since we do SO. MUCH. LAUNDRY. at our house, I try to use detergents that are easier on our clothes and bodies (but will get rid of my children’s disgusting messes!).  I was excited to find NEW sulfate free all® fresh clean ESSENTIALS® which delivers a powerful clean without harshness.

It’s even one of the first laundry detergents to include a list of the ingredients on the back so you know you’re getting a sulfate-free formula! And on top of that, the sulfate-free formula infuses fabrics with essential, proven and effective ingredients for deep cleaning and stain lifting.  Look for it on the top shelves in the laundry aisle at your local Walmart (near cleaning supplies).  Also, click here for a $.50 cent coupon off any all® product (while supplies last)!

And if what goes into my laundry detergent matters, the ingredients in my shampoo and conditioner are even more important…I mean, we’re pouring this stuff on our heads multiple times a week! AVEENO PURE RENEWAL® Shampoo and Conditioner contains naturally derived cleansers and a sulfate free formula to gently cleanse your hair and scalp (and they’re also free of dyes and parabens!).

I’ve actually noticed that my scalp gets irritated and dry when I use traditional shampoos versus sulfate-free varieties; in fact I’m not the only one with sensitive skin at our house.  I mean, the whole point of shampoos and conditioners is that they make our hair look and feel amazing, right??

Look for it in the Hair Care aisle at your local Walmart and grab this $1.00 coupon off any AVEENO® product (while supplies last).

And now, on to our tutorial!

My girls are constantly using towels, sheets or any scrap of fabric they can find to wrap around themselves and pretend they’re princesses (Moana-style). So this towel idea is perfect for the little girls in your lives, as well as for any boys who think towels are optional when walking to and from the bathroom (ew).  You can even make a bigger version for all you grown ups who’d like just a teensy bit more privacy in your post-shower moments.  (Seriously, children!!)

So, let’s get making!

Supplies:

1 large bath-sized towel (mine measured about 30″ x 60″)
20-30″ of 1″ elastic
1-2 pieces of velcro (both sides)
coordinating thread

**A note about fit: My twins are skinny and I wanted to get 2 wraparound towels out of each bath towel so ours only overlap edges by a few inches.  My girls actually really like how they show some leg through the slit when they walk (ha!), but if you want more coverage/overlap out of yours, just cut your towels a little wider than shown below.  This tutorial shows how to make a towel that measures 28″ long by 24″ wide.

  1.  Fold your towel in half widthwise and cut along the fold.  (If you want your towel wider than this, simply cut down the towel by less than half.)
  2.  Turn your towel 90 degrees and fold over the top edge by 3.5″, then cut along this fold (this measurement determines length so cut more or less depending on your desired length).

  3.  Fold over the towel’s edge (that you cut in step 2) by about 1.5″ and stitch close to raw edge, all the way across the top of the towel.  I made sure to finish the raw edges of my towel before sewing together because terry cloth frays pretty badly (a zigzag stitch works fine for this).

  4.  Measure your model’s chest and then cut your elastic to this measurement (ours was 23″).  Slip a safety pin into the edge of the elastic and thread it through the casing you sewed in step 3.

  5.  Pull until the opposite edge of your elastic is flush with the edge of the towel and stitch through both edges of the towel and elastic.  I used a zig zag stitch here for extra security.

  6.  Fit the towel to your model and continue pulling the elastic/safety pin out of the towel until desired tension is achieved.  Then stitch through this edge of the towel, closing the casing and securing the elastic.  Cut off remaining elastic.
  7.  Finally, sew one  piece of velcro onto each top edge of the towel, right on top of the elastic. Be sure that you sew one piece of velcro on the inside of the towel and the other piece on the outside so that they adhere when the towel is wrapped around.  If you ended up with more overlap than we did, sew your velcro farther in on the towel instead of right on the edge.

And that’s it! A perfect post-bath towel or cover-up for the pool.

Don’t forget to grab a bottle of sulfate free all® fresh clean ESSENTIALS® to wash your cute new towels with. And also try sulfate free AVEENO PURE RENEWAL® Shampoo and Conditioner, both at Walmart!

 Find the tutorial for the leotard/swimsuit Kira (on the right) is wearing HERE.

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