Life's Doodles

A Blog About Scheduled Life Going Unscheduled

Kids Hooded Towel Tutorial

I love those hooded baby towels, but our kids both grew out of those towels way too quickly. Below is a DIY hooded towel tutorial that I used to make hooded towels for kids. I got this tutorial from the following link: https://projectnursery.com/2017/04/diy-hooded-towel-tutorial/

Materials List:

  • 1 Regular Sized Bath Towel (any size bath towel will work)
  • 1 Coordinating Hand Towel
  • Matching Thread
  • Sewing Machine
  • Rotary Cutter, Self-Healing Rotary Mat & Clear Acrylic Ruler or your can just use scissors
  • Rulers
  • Sewing Pins

Instructions:

1.Start by creating the hood. Folder your hand towel in half, matching up the short sides.

2. Measure 11.5″ down from the folded edge and cut off the bottom edges.

3. Open the hand towel and fold 1.5″ up on one long side. Using your coordinating thread to sew a straight stitch right below the finished edge along your fold.

4. Then go back and sew right on top of the finished edge. This will prevent the edge from flapping up and gives it a nice edge.

5. Fold the hand towel in half again, matching up the short sides. But this time, make sure the long finished edge you just sewed is inside. The finished edge you just sewed will be the hood front.

6. Measuring from the hood front, mark 8″ along the top folded edge and 12″ along the bottom edge. Align a ruler on the two marks and cut diagonally. Save the piece you removed to make hand pockets later!

7. Pin your diagonal edges together. Use a zig-zag stitch to sew them together with a 1/4″ seam allowance. Then turn the hood right-side out.

8. Find the top inside center of your bath towel. Pin the bottom center of the hood to the top center of your bath towel, with the hood piece overlapping the bath towel by 1/2″.

9. With the hood piece still overlapping the bath towel by 1/2″, pin the remaining bottom edges of the hood along the top edge of the towel. You will have to fold the hood a bit in order to get the straight edges to align.

10. Use your zig-zag stitch to sew the hood on with a 1/4″ seam allowance.

11. On the back side of the hood, you’ll notice the top edge of the bath towel has made a flap. Use a straight stitch to sew this down along the hood.

Instructions for Optional Hand Pockets

12. Cut along the fold of the discarded triangle from the hand towel. Measure down 8″ from the top and cut off the bottoms.

13. You should now have two pieces like below. Run a zip-zag stitch along the diagonal edge to keep it from fraying.

14. On the inside of the towel, align the pocket just inside the top corner. Pin in place.

15. Sew a zip-zag stitch along three sides, leaving the diagonal side open. Repeat with the other piece on the other top corner.

You are done! Don’t you just want to make more. I am definitely going to make more of these for our kids.

Our kids absolutely love these hooded towels. Our son loves to play with his and loves the hand pockets! Aren’t they just the cutest towels that your kids will be able to use for years. These make really nice beach towels as well. It is a great way to dry off and get warm after getting out of the pool!

Do your kids love hooded towels as much as our do? I would love to hear about where you buy your hooded towels or how you make them. Thanks for stopping by! I will talk to you again soon!

-Kim

Chocolate Popsicles

Do you love chocolate milk? If you do then you will love these quick and easy chocolate popsicles. All you need is chocolate milk and some popsicle molds.

You can use whatever type of chocolate milk you prefer. I used 2% chocolate milk but I think the whole chocolate milk would be really tasty. Fat free chocolate milk can be used but I think that at least 2% should be used to give it a creamier taste.

To make this chocolate summer treat just pour your chocolate milk into your popsicle mold (I used the koji Ice Pop Molds for the larger popsicles and the Nuby Garden Fresh Fruitsicle Frozen Pop Tray for the smaller popsicles, perfect for a toddlers small hands). I love the koji Ice Pop Molds because they are really simple to use and the popsicles come out of the molds really easy. I also love the Nuby Garden Fresh Fruitsicle Frozen Pop Tray because they are perfect for small toddlers to hold on to and the perfect small size for a small toddler as well. You could also use ice cube trays if you don’t have any popsicle molds. It would be really tasty to put chocolate ice cubes into chocolate milk to keep it cold!

Place in the freezer overnight and enjoy the next day. To remove the popsicle from the mold just run it under some warm water until the popsicle releases from the edges of the mold. Our kids absolutely love these popsicles. They both ask for more after their popsicle was gone.

I hope you enjoy this quick and easy popsicle recipe. This is one of our favorite popsicle recipes in the summer. What are some of your favorite popsicle recipes? We love popsicles in our house so I would love to hear about your favorites. Thanks for stopping by and I will talk to you again soon!

-Kim

National Zoo Keeper Week Hats & Dear Zoo Activity

Since this is National Zoo Keeper Week, I thought it would be fun to do a couple little zoo activities with the kids.

We first made some homemade zoo keeper hats. These hats are super simple to make and so much fun to make with kids. All you need for this project is paper plates, paper bowls, hot glue, brown crayons or markers, paper punch and yarn.

Zoo Keeper Hat Instructions:

  • First you color the back of the paper plates and paper bowls brown with crayons or markers. You could also use paint if you want.
  • Then you cut a hole in the middle of the paper plate big enough for the bowl to fit inside.
  • Now you hot glue the paper plate to the paper bowl
  • Next using the paper punch, put a hold on each side of the hat to attach the string to the hat.
  • Finally cut a string that is long enough the the person wearing the hat and attached is to the hat using the holes you just paper punched.

The cutest little zoo board book ever is Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell. This book has been around since 1982 and is still a very popular book. It is a Lift-the-Flap book that has an animal behind each flap. Kids love guessing what kind of animal is behind each flap.

I put together an activity to do with the kids while reading them this book. All you need is the 8 animals in the book (Elephant, Giraffe, Lion, Camel, Snake, Monkey, Frog and Dog), some brown craft paper, tape and labels that say FROM THE ZOO. Wrap each animal separately with the brown craft paper and put one of the FROM THE ZOO labels on each package. Then I placed all the packages in a small basket.

As you read the book, have the kids open each animal as you come to that part of the book.

Reading this book to the kids was so much fun. It allowed them to interact with the book. They loved opening each animal as we came to that page in the book. You can do so many different activities with this book. Depending on the age of the kids you are reading it to, you could use wooden letters to match up with each animal and/or you could talk about specifics about each animal (like what color they are, where they live, what they like to eat, what sounds they make or what they look like).

Dear Zoo has been a wonderful addition to our children’s book collection. What are some of your favorite zoo themed children’s books? We absolutely love books at our house, so I would love you hear your favorites. Thanks for stopping back and I will talk to you again soon!

-Kim

4th of July – Paper Roll Fireworks

I found a great 4th of July weekend project to do with our kids. I found it on Instagram @jessicagrant14 (https://www.instagram.com/p/BzOBjmtnncn/).

Paper Roll Fireworks

What you will need:

  • Brown Craft Paper
  • Red, White and Blue Non Toxic Washable Paint
  • Empty Paper Towel Roll cut half way into strips
  • Paper Plates
  • Glitter Glue Pens
  • Star Stickers

This project is really simple. Just pour each color of paint on a different paper plate and let your kids dip the cut paper towel rolls into the paint and then press it down on the brown craft paper. Let your kids have fun with this and be creative.

After the paint drys use the glitter glue pens to put glitter on each of the fireworks.

Then put the star stickers on the brown craft paper.

I love that you can use this as a cute holiday table runner for your dining room table! Happy 4th of July!

Ice Paint

We have been going through a heatwave the last few days, so we decided to make the most of it and make a batch of Ice Paint. This paint reminds me a lot of water color paints, except you don’t need any brushes or water after it is made. The best thing about it is that it is washable!!!

What you will need:

  • Large Piece of heavy craft paper
  • Tape to secure the paper to the surface of your choice
  • Tablespoon and Teaspoon Measuring spoons
  • 16 wooden Popsicle sticks
  • 1 or 2 ice cube trays
  • Washable non-toxic paints
  • Water

How to make:

  • Pour 1 Tablespoon of water into each space of your ice cube tray
  • Put 1 teaspoon of paint into each space of your ice cube tray and mix well
  • Place a wooden Popsicle stick in each space of your ice cube tray
  • Put your filled ice cube tray into the freezer overnight or until frozen solid
  • Remove ice paint cubes from the ice cube tray and place in a different container or just leave in the ice cube tray
  • Place a large piece of heavy craft paper on your driveway, sidewalk or table and secure with tape.
  • Let your kids have fun being creative with the ice paints

Our kids had a lot of fun with this activity. They both loved to put the paint on their hands and make hand prints on the paper.

What are your favorite things to do on hot summer days with your kids? I would love to hear your ideas. Thanks for stopping by and I will talk to you again soon.

-Kim