Viva la Diva- Kids terry bathwrap tutorial

Diva loves things girly. One of these days, she is going to cost some guy a fortune. In the meantime, her dad and I have to find ways to indulge her.

Recently, a store opened up in our town where little girls can go and get the full spa treatment. This place is serious...limo rides, birthday parties and glitteratti galore. One of the cutest things they sell there are terry cloth bath wraps with embroidery and sequins. Cute, but at $45.00 a pop, a little out of my price range.

Fortunately, they are simple to replicate. All you need is a bath towel, 3/8 inch elastic, velcro and your sewing machine.

Wash and dry your towel so that if it is going to shrink, it will do so now.

To start, measure around your little diva. For our project, the measurement was 24 inches. The towel I bought was 52 inches long. I wanted a 12 inch over lap, so I cut the towel 36 inches from the left side. Put the left over piece away, you'll use it later.

Terry cloth doesn't unravel, but it does leave a lot of fuzz so you will need to finish off your raw edge. I used a 4 thread overlock stitch to finish mine, but you could also use a zig zag stitch or fold and seam the raw edge.

Now you will need to make a casing for the elastic. At the top edge, fold down the towel 1/4 inch, fold again 3/4 inch and pin securely. Now run a straight seam as close to the double folded edge as possible.

Now is the time to add any embroidery you may want to have on your wrap. I couldn't find anything that struck my fancy, so I digitized an illustration of a lipstick tube from a coloring book. Hoop your wrap per your machines directions. I used a tear away stabilizer on the back and then layered Sulky disolvable stabilizer over the top. The top layer will help keep the embroidery threads from being pulled in to the nap of the terry cloth, leaving you with a better embroidery.

Now comes the fun part- Watching your machine do the embroidery. I am always amazed watching my Designer SE doing it's stuff.

Once your embroidery is done, unhoop the material and remove the backing and disolvable sulky.

Now take the velcro strip. Cut a piece about 3 inches long. I folded over the edges of the wrap so that there was approximately a 6 inch over lap from front to back. Center your velcro horizontally in the over lap and stitch. Now take another piece of velcro approximately 8 inches long. This one you will place lengthwise about 1 1/2 inches from the finished front edge of the wrap. Stitch in place.

Now for the elastic. You will want to have the wrap fit snuggly, but comfortably. Using your chest measurement, cut the elastic approximately 1 inch shorter. Use a safety pin to secure the strip to one end of the opening. Now, using a larger safety pin, run the elastic through the casing you made earlier. When you are through, use the safety pin to attach the elastic to this edge too. Now, using a zig zag stitch, overlap the elastic over the terry cloth and run several rows of stitching to secure.

Breathe a sigh of relief- you're almost done!

Now on to the straps. Take the left over terry cloth and cut two rectangles 3 inches by 18 inches long.

Edit from original post: 18 inches turned out to be far too long for my little diva. 15 would have worked much better on her.

Fold each strip in half lengthwise and finish the raw edge. I used the serger again. If you decide to run a straight seam, make sure you fold the cloth inside out and then turn the fabric when you are done.

To attach the straps, pin each edge of the strap about 1 inch below the elastic casing. Use several rows of zig zag stitches to make a secure seam.

Ta da! Pat yourself on the back for coming up with a quick and easy gift. But shhh... don't tell Diva, she doesn't know she is getting this for her birthday.