Hooded Duck Towel Tutorial

duck

Well here it is, the tutorial that i promised. the pics didn't turn out as good as i was hoping, but i think you manage just fine.

We'll start of with a material list:

1 large yellow bath towel

1 yellow hand towel

1 orange hand towel

1 white hand towel or wash cloth

2 medium size black buttons

Corresponding color thread

small amount of batting

The first step will be to make the hood of the towel. Follow the link i have posted below to another hooded towel tutorial. FOLLOW IT ONLY AS FAR AS THE COMPLETION IF THE HOOD and the come back to this tute to create the duck. http://sewdad.blogspot.com/2011/01/hooded-puppy-towel-tutorial.html

 I didn't want to have to go all of the way back to the beginning since i had created a tutorial that covered this earlier.

Lets get crack'n on the duck head! First we need to sketch up the three patterns for the bill. The actual finished bill turned out to be abut 4 inches wide. The shape is not set in stone so sketch the bill to look how you what or just do what i did below.

The bill consist of three piece stuffed with batting. The pic directly below is the sketch of the top of the bill. Sketch out a ruff pattern of the bill as viewed from above. This will be just a tad bit larger than the finished bill. Now add an extra 1/2 inch around the outside of the pattern EXCEPT FOR THE TOP OF THE BIIL where it will attach to the face. This is the seam allowance. You will use this patter for the 2 half's of the upper bill. 

 The picture below represents the three pieces to be cut. The black out line is the upper portion of the bill. The blue line represents the cut line for the bottom half of the upper bill. Basically it is the same as the top half of the bill just with the excess material above the blue line cut away. The red outline is the lower bill. It is to be cut about 3/4 inch narrower on the 2 sides than the 2 upper bill half's. use this pic as a reference.

Place the patterns on the orange hand towel and cut them out.

 Place the lower bill material on to the lower half of the upper bill. Place it so that the top(where it connects to the face)of the bill material overhangs 1/2 inch over the of the lower half of the upper bill and pin them together.

Sew around the edges using a zigzag stitch. You want to sew it so that the stitch completely encompasses the raw edge of the lower bill material. this is to prevent it from fraying and coming apart. Leave the top open.

 Place the upper half of the upper bill material on the lower half of the upper bill sandwiching the lower bill material between the two and sew the edges use a 1/2 inch seam allowance. Leave the top open.

Fold the bill right side out and stuff the two pockets with a small amount batting. Not to much or it wont dry easily when washed.

Pin the lower portion of the bill to the Hood. This is where that overhanging material on the lower half of the bill material comes into play. Ensure that the bill is centered with the hood and pin it to the outside of the hood, not the inside. As you can see from the picture below the bill overlaps the hood with right sides touching approximately 1/2 inch.

sew along the width of the bill with a straight stitch staying about 1/8 inch in from the edge of the hood. Do this only to the lower bill half, not the 2 upper bill pieces. This step will attach the lower portion of the bill and the next step Will protect the raw edge of the bill material.

Pull the top portion of the bill up the outside of the hood about 3 inches or what ever looks right to you. Center the bill with the hood center and pin it. you can see now that it is starting to look like something.

I must have forgotten to take a picture of this step but I'm sure that you'll manage. With the bill pinned to the hood and and your stamp of approval on the placement its time to sew it on. Don't forget to change your bobbin and spool thread to the appropriate colors. Sew along the edge of the upper bill half with a zigzag stitch. Make sure that you over lap the stitch over the raw edge of the bill to prevent it from fraying and coming apart. You also might want to consider tightening up your stitch length for this step.

Now you have a blind duck!

Lets give the duck the gift of sight. As you can see in the pic below the pattern that i sketched out for the eyes is kind of cartoony. go ahead and make your pattern. you only need to make one pattern.

Place the pattern on the white hand towel and cut 2 of them out. I folded the towel over on its self so i could get 2 out of one cut.

Determine a appropriate location for the eyes and pin (one at a time) to the hood. once satisfied sew it on. Remember to mind your thread colors. Sew around the edges of the eyes using a zigzag stitch and encompass the raw edge of the eye. repeat for the second eye.

Unless you like the zombie duck look (you know with the eyes rolled back in the head) sew on the pupils. Take one of the black buttons for each eye and determine the placement and sew them on.  You may want to do this by hand, I'm lazy so i did it with my machine. to do this by machine you are going to have to disengage the feed dogs under the presser foot and use the appropriate width zigzag stitch. Check your thread color.

This is what you should end up with. 

Now you need to wash and dry it. That should work up any loose threads so that you can trim them. Once you have all of the loose ends trimmed you can now fold, roll and present

I hope that you have enjoyed this tutorial because they take a lot longer to write than it does to make this towel. Don't be intimidated, this is super easy. You just need the confidence to try.