How To Make the Best Camping Towel EVAR!
For longer camping trips, I make sure that we stay at campgrounds with a shower. Having the luxury of a daily shower makes camping in a tent nearly as good as staying in a hotel. The daily trek to the shower, however, can be difficult when I have to carry the shampoo, soap, my change of clothing and towel.
I struggled with that before I remembered my most excellent beach towel tote. I originally bought this towel for lying out in my backyard. It’s a LONG towel that folds into a bag. I can put my clean clothes in the towel, my shampoo and soap in the pocket and hang it on the hook that most campground showers have. I can keep it hanging on the hook while I dry myself with the long towel tail while my clean clothes stay safe in the bag. Even if it falls off the hook, the bag protects my clothes as long as I grab it quick before the clothes get wet.
When I first bought this towel, I was pretty disappointed because the terry cloth was SO thin. Compared to my regular beach towels, it felt like it was half the thickness. That cheap terry cloth, however, has been a godsend in humid climates. It will dry quickly if I hang it up in the tent. I’ve even taken this towel on cruises and it dries in the cabin, even in the most humid of locations.
The pocket to the right of the towel is supposed to hang off a beach chair and can be used to hold your gadgets or magazines. I’ve never really used that pocket, even though I thought I would. The towel is so light that anything in that pocket pulls it off the chair when you stand up. When I’m drying off in the campground shower stall, that little pocket is just a bit of extra towel for me and nothing more.
The tote portion of the towel usually fits nicely over the top of a beach chair and keeps my towel from rolling down my back when I’m trying to relax. That feature works really well and I’ve had my towel stay in place even when the wind picks up. When I’m camping, I don’t use that feature. Instead, I use that pocket to hold my clothing up and away from all the water.
The pocket on the front is perfect for holding my shampoo, soap, razor and any other toiletries I need in the shower. I would have liked it to have a zipper so that things don’t fall out of it. I lost a bottle of sunscreen out of that pocket somewhere in Roatan, so now, I’m extra vigilant when I put things in there to make sure they don’t slip out. A zipper would prevent that. I’m thinking of adding a zipper to that pocket just for my own peace of mind.
I bought my towel at my local grocery store on the seasonal aisle, but I found a few towels on Amazon that look similar.
- Beach Chair Cover Includes Terry Inflatable Pillow Cover Converts to a Beach Tote- Red: This one looks the most like the one I own, except that it includes an inflatable pillow. Bonus!
- Terry Cloth LOUNGE CHAIR COVER Pool Beach Deck YELLOW: This one doesn’t SHOW how it converts into a tote, but it looks very similar to mine.
- “ITSA” ULTRA-THICK 82″ TERRY VELOUR LOUNGE CHAIR BEACH TOWEL WITH 6 SIDE POCKETS, ZIPPERED LOWER POCKET THAT CONVERTS INTO A BEACH BAG!-PINK: This one looks similar as well.
Martha Stewart has a tutorial showing how to make a tote of your own:
The handles are down the middle instead of along the sides, so I think this one might not be as comfortable to use on the lounger because one of the canvas handles would be poking you in the back instead of hanging along the back of the chair like mine does.
After seeing Martha’s inept attempt, I decided to make my own camp/beach towel tote, using some beat up and ratty bath towels that I retired to the rag pile a couple of years ago. Click to see the instructions:
Supplies:
- Two large bath towels (32′ X 62″ both the same design). Thinner terry cloth is better than thicker if you want it to dry quickly.
- Matching thread
- 12″ Vislon YKK Zipper in matching color
Cut the pieces out of the first towel.
Step 1: Cut the first towel 26″ from the end.
Step 2: Cut a 14″ X 14″ square out of the other end of the first towel to create the pocket.
Step 3: Cut a 3″ strip lengthwise from the first towel to create the handle (32″).
Step 4: Zig-zag stitch along the cut edges in order to prevent fraying.
Sew the pocket onto the cut end.
Step 1: With the right side of the towel (front) pocket facing you, pin on the zipper and stitch into place.
Step 2: Hem the pocket on sides and bottom.
Step 3: Center the other end of the zipper on the right side (front) of the cut end and sew it.
Step 4: Sew the sides and bottom of the pocket to the cut end, making sure the trim is aligned.
Attach the cut end to the intact towel.
Step 1: Hem along the cut edge of the cut end piece.
Step 2: Sew the cut end onto the intact towel to create the tote, aligning the trim.
Attach the handle.
Step 1: Fold the 3″ strip in half with the wrong side out and sew a seam lengthwise.
Step 2: Turn the handle inside out so that the seam is on the inside. This was the hardest step for me. I used a safety pin to pull it through.
Step 4: Sew the handle onto the inside edges of the tote, using a square and X stitch. I had to sew this by hand because my machine won’t go through four layers of fluffy terry cloth. You can’t see the stitches, so I highlighted where I stitched on the photograph.
Afterthoughts
I wish I hadn’t used such old and ratty towels because I actually like the finished product. This tote is a BEAST, though. It is HUGE, which is a benefit when I’m laying it out on a lounger, but a problem when I’m carrying it. Here is a picture of it next to the original.
Mike snapped a quick picture of me when I was heading to the camp shower in Arizona. You can really see how BIG that towel is. It was great for drying off, but it looked so silly. I ended up tying a knot in the handle so that it wouldn’t hang so low when I put it on the hook outside the shower.
I made the pocket big enough to hold a full-sized shampoo bottle (and whatever other toiletries I need to bring to the shower). Now that it has a zipper, I don’t have to worry about losing anything on the way there or back. I really liked being able to put everything in there and keep it all secure.
I used this towel when we camped at Quartzite, AZ and it worked great for drying me off. The extra large size is nice in that respect. It also dried fully each day while hung in the tent, but then again, we were in Arizona, so it wasn’t humid at all. I’m interested to see how the towel fairs in more humid climates.
Honestly, I like the smaller towel tote better, so I added a zipper to its pocket as well, which was almost as hard a task as sewing that entire towel tote from scratch. Whether you buy one of these towel totes from Amazon or sew your own, there’s no arguing that these are the best camp towels EVAR!