before and after - towel toy
I see great printed towels at the thrift store all the time. I generally pause but I never stop. always seemed maybe a little gross? funny which things will gross you out and which won’t. sheets no but towels yes? makes no sense. but after seeing these amazing stuffed toys by the german designer andreas linzner and then this cutie by carly I had to put towels on my thrifting list. bright orange & pink floral towel plus 70s pattern for a stuffed hippo turns out this guy.
click on photo for before.
March 7th, 2006 at 1:30 pm
That’s fabulous! I always have the exact same response to towels, they are sometimes really cool looking, but for some reason I couldn’t really bring myself to touch them. Perhaps I will have to reconsider.
March 7th, 2006 at 1:31 pm
YES!!!!! I love this idea. Do you think if you stuffed it with cut up sponges, or foam rubber, it could be used like
a bath toy?
March 7th, 2006 at 1:33 pm
whoa! most adorable stuffed i’ve seen in a while.
March 7th, 2006 at 1:38 pm
OK, that’s the cutest hippo ever. You have a great eye for transformation.
March 7th, 2006 at 2:03 pm
That is just brilliant! I love those colors, yum, yum, yummy!
March 7th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
your vibes must be crossing the atlantic because last week i was in my local french thriftstore and I bought a blue/green towel just like that one, or similar anyway. I was not sure what to do with it but the colors were just so beautiful. my husband thought i had really lost my mind this time, paying money for towels even his grandmother would have thrown away. but now i will follow your lead and whip up a bunny or something out of this towel!
and good idea above with the sponge filling! MS Kids suggested something like that a few years back with a duck made of sponge.
March 7th, 2006 at 3:01 pm
eeeek, he is so cute! i’m funny about towels and sheets. like i sit there and think “what kinda person wiped their butt with this towel?”
now i may have to reconsider. and i like the idea of stuffing it with something and using it as a bath toy (with a new towel of course
March 7th, 2006 at 3:07 pm
ha! i have also not bought towels secondhand, but have always been attracted to those two-color floral ones. makes an adorable stuffie. that linzner link is fab. thank you.
March 7th, 2006 at 3:51 pm
I need to stop coming by here. I want that towel. Never mind the stuffie.
March 7th, 2006 at 5:28 pm
Holy moley, that is so danged cute. And what a great use for a towel which would normally send me screaming in the other direction.
March 7th, 2006 at 9:00 pm
OMG that is AWESOME. I want that pattern! it is SO cute!
March 7th, 2006 at 9:30 pm
That is adorable.
March 7th, 2006 at 10:00 pm
Excellent! great work - great idea!
March 8th, 2006 at 12:45 am
The hippo is great, I love the idea…
and as a sidenote, I picked up a pair of pillowcases with the same print as the sheet you’ve got the hippo on. Funny coincidence.
March 8th, 2006 at 4:14 am
oh I just had to comment, i normally just lurk! I always look at these towels but never touch, there is something strangley stare-inspiring about them, it must be the texture, now you’ve spurred me on, the next one I’m gonna buy! and yep I reckon I’ll get some strange looks from DH!
March 8th, 2006 at 10:36 am
Oh, now I have thrift regret. I saw a gorgeous old towel last week at a thrift store, but didn’t know what I would ever do with it! Darn it, I should have bought it! Love the hippo!
March 8th, 2006 at 11:25 am
My hub has such a thing for orange hippos (I don’t know why)–he’s going to wet himself when he sees that cutie!
March 8th, 2006 at 1:29 pm
i love, love, love the hippo and never think about towels. Maybe a little beach tote would be cute.
March 9th, 2006 at 10:55 am
Oh! My beach towel when I was little was textured just like that, with leopards… memorieeesssss, light the corners of my miiiiind….
March 9th, 2006 at 11:04 am
Oh I hate to say it, but wahhhh! I can’t believe you cut that towel!
I am not judging not judging not judging (though I always loved my local vintage store owner for refusing to sell intact chenille spreads or robes to this one woman who cut them up to make stuffed teddy bears for her high-end boutique!!).
OK, snit fit over. I LOVE the hippo. Love it. Adorable.
March 9th, 2006 at 1:33 pm
that is so gorgeous the way you photographed the hippo on that beautiful floral. I love it. Now I will add towels to my thrift wish list. I already added chenille blankets after seeing bits of them in dolls, and sheets for tons of yardage in groovy prints.
March 9th, 2006 at 2:20 pm
will the pattern for your most adorable hippo be available?
it’s a wonderful idea… you have given me a new item to hunt for!
:)
March 10th, 2006 at 10:18 am
He is so cute, and I know what you mean about the pattern of towls. Lots of fun there. I acctually saw, somwhere on the net, baby quilts made of every second cotton squeres and every second of white towels in different pattern (stripes, dotts and so on). It looked totally cute. Maybe an idea? I think I will try it someday.
March 10th, 2006 at 7:16 pm
what a great idea. this is definitely going on my to do craft list!
March 12th, 2006 at 10:40 pm
I love your towel hippo! We must be in the hippo mindset together. I just made an almost identical one a few weeks ago. My girls love it….there’s just something about a hippo that is so huggable!
http://mommycoddle.typepad.com/mommycoddle/2006/03/hip_hip_hippo.html
March 13th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
wow what a great hippo! i too am a little scared of old towels, but that i find incredibly amazing and not scary at all!
March 14th, 2006 at 5:01 pm
That is amazingly cute!
What a great idea to do with towels.
March 21st, 2006 at 10:02 pm
I think my parents still have those exact towels, now suddenly I feel like telling them to write it into the will that I inherit them. The hippo is supper cute you need to find another towel and make him a big turtle to be friends with like Owen and Mzee.
March 26th, 2006 at 5:38 pm
Thank you so much for posting that. I love sewing with towels and with neckties, but I can’t believe I never thought of using PRINTED towels. Wow. My interest is re-sparked.
April 7th, 2006 at 8:57 am
oh my god…
i think i made that EXACT hippo in textiles class at high school…! did it by any chance come from a book that included patterns for tomato sauce / ketchup bottle people?? with a bbq theme?? made from felt?? (if they sound too good to be true, THEY WERE)
April 12th, 2006 at 12:08 pm
WOW! I LOVE this!!
April 17th, 2006 at 7:09 am
That is the CUTEST thing EVER. I have a two year old who needs a hippo, and I just picked up a towel for the purpose at one of our local thrift stores after reading this entry the other day. Tell me there’s a place I can find the pattern, pretty please? Thanks for posting the cutie and creating inspiration!
July 10th, 2006 at 1:55 pm
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