I haven’t made a new hooded towel in a long time! But when you find out that your cousin (who you adore) is having a baby girl and you are heading to San Diego to visit her for a few days and you know she is going to love a new towel for the new baby, you bust out something awesome, like this cute hippo hooded towel!
My mom has actually always had a thing for cute hippos and even had a business logo once with a hippo just like this on it, so I knew this would be a cute towel option as well. Love how it turned out!
Got a little one who you think would love a cute hippo? Let’s make it!
Hippo Hooded Towel Tutorial:
Supplies Needed:
- Purple towel (mine came from Target)
- Purple hand towel to match
- Pink ribbon (for bow in ear)
- Small amounts of white, black and light pink fabric
- Small amounts of paper backed adhesive like Heat n Bond
- Small amount of white felt or fleece
- Hippo Hooded Towel Pattern
Instructions:
The truth is that I have written instructions to make hooded towels so many times and most of them are essentially the same process once you have the pieces cut out, that I didn’t take a ton of pictures of this process. So if you need more visuals I will refer you to the Teddy Bear Hooded Towel post for more details if you need them.
Also, I will refer to the hooded towel post for the basics on overall construction of the hooded towel. This part is simply how to make the head.
Start by cutting out your pieces. You will cut two snouts from the purple hand towel as well as 4 ears. Cut two white eyes, two black eyes, two pink nostrils and two white teeth from your felt or fleece.
Also cut the Heat n Bond to match your eyes, eyeballs and nostrils.
Follow the instructions on the hooded towel post to get your hand towel ready to add the face.
Get your snout pieces ready. Iron the nostrils on where you want them on piece of the snout. Then place the snout pieces with right sides together and the teeth placed where you want them going inward (see image). The rounded ends of the teeth should face the inside of the snout at this point.
With right sides together, sew around the sides of the snout leaving the top flat part open. Turn right side out and stitch around the nostrils with an appliqué stitch (very tight, close together zigzag-see image below).
Take your hand towel piece that is ready to work with (based on the instructions in the hooded towel tutorial) and on the underside (part with no seam), place your eyes and eyeballs where you want them and iron them down.
Place your snout where you want it and sew it on with a zigzag stitch across the top part of it. (Careful, you are sewing through a lot of layers of towel at this point.)
Grab your ear pieces and sew two together around the sides leaving the bottom flat part open and then turn right side out. Repeat with other ear.
In your towel cut little slits where you want the ears and pull them through. You will sew this all closed on the underside (see images in the teddy bear towel tutorial). This can be really tricky because this is a lot of layers. Go slow and carefully and use a heavy duty needle if needed.
Once you have those in place you just need to make the head a hood.
Fold it so that the face is inside and sew up the raw edges of the towel with a zigzag. (See images in Teddy Bear.)
Fold the towel into a triangle shape (again, see images in teddy bear) and sew the top tip of the triangle, then cut that piece off.
Sew the hood to the towel (see either of the other towel posts mentioned) and you are done! Enjoy!
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Anywhere I can just buy one of these already made? It’s so cute but I’m not very good with a sewing machine.
Sorry, I don’t sell anything.
Check etsy, it may not be exactly the same but you may find one.
How darling! Love all your hooded towels, especially the Hippo. Your cousin will love it!
My son loves hippos, among other animals. I made him the minion towel for Christmas and it the only hooded towel he’s been using since, it has to be washed fast. He then asked for a penguin and I had plans for a dinosaur and now he wants a blue hippo(the towels I had for the dinosaur). So I will be making a penguin, an orange and green dinosaur(my kids favorite colors) and a blue hippo. Thank you so much for these patterns, they are so cute and easy(even if I can’t find the stupid emborery stitch on my machine and just stitched it the best I could in the same colors and got a grey towel to do the goggle). My son loves these towels and they’ll last longer than the store purchased ones as they are bigger. With all these new towels being made I see some staying at his grandparents.
Awww glad they are going so well for you and for him!
Love all your hooded towel tutorials! I’ve made so many of them. Looking for an elephant hooded towel. Any plans for one😉
I few people have asked for that. I’ll keep it in mind-but it sounds hard!
I think you could easily make the elephant and I would love to have the pattern when you do. You could probably use one of the patterns you have and add a trunk instead of a snout or beak. I can’t wait to see what you do with it. I am contemplating using fabric instead of towels for some I am making and I have a perfect piece that is just waiting for the elephant!
I used this pattern, along with the beach cover up pattern of yours, and made a hippo towel cover up for my daughter. It was originally going to be used for after swimming, but she loves it so much she asks for it after every bath. She’ll slip it over her head and then crawl (on her hands and feet) and pretend to be a hippo! Love your towel tutorials!
Oh CUTE!!!!
I have been looking for a horse or zebra hooded towel or blanket. I have not seen either on your site; do you have one or are you planning to make one? I have all the needed materials but am not sure I am ready to tackle my own pattern.
Oh I haven’t done that but I think you could do a really cool one. If I don’t get to it before you are ready, I think it would be easy to do it with yarn between the seam in the back for the mane like the spikes on the dragon. Then do a snout, big eyes and ears.
Thank you! I can’t wait to start. I want to make a Zebra for my great granddaughter. I have already cut out a lot of eyes, ears, noses, etc. for
some of your patterns that I plan to make soon. The Zebra will be like icing on the cake if I succeed.
Hi. Love all your towels. Just wondering if you will be making new ones. Like a horse, crocodile, unicorn etc.
Unicorn is on my list… I even have the supplies, just need to do it!
Thanks. I will anxiously wait for the unicorn