How to Fold a Towel Turkey
Towel Turkey
Supplies Needed for Towel Turkey
1. One Bath Towel for main body
2. Three Washcloths for tail
3. Red Felt for wattle
4. Two Pipe Cleaners (AKA Chenille Stems) for feet
5. Two Eyes (google eyes, bits of felt, or bits of paper)
Towel Turkey Folding Instructions
How to Make a Towel Turkey Body
hang bath towel on wall hook
Hang center of long side of bath towel on wall hook, or tuck it under your chin. Roll both sides tightly to the middle until entire towel becomes two tight rolls with a pointy end at the top and wide end at the bottom.
- Roll rolled towel starting at wide end
Set tightly rolled towel down on flat surface with rolled side down. Roll towel bird body starting from wide end of towel and leaving enough of the pointy end unrolled to make the head and neck.
roll body until just enough is left for head and neck
The part of the towel hanging out the sides becomes the wings after rolling the towel turkey body. Tuck the neck between the body rolls and curl the end down for the head.
tuck the leftover end between the rolls
How to Fold a Towel Turkey Tail
fold washcloth like a fan
Fold one end of washcloth over. Fold same end again going the opposite way. Continue folding back and forth until entire washcloth is folded accordion style. Repeat with other two washcloths.
bend folded washcloths at the center
Fold all three at center, pinching folded end tight so they resemble a fan. Set them side by side and pinch folds as tightly as possible to make that end small enough to fit between the rolls of the turkey body.
gather washcloths together at folded end
Assembling the Towel Turkey
pinch ends of washcloth tail tight and push tail between rolls
Push folded end washcloth tail into crack between turkey body rolls. Bring edges together where washcloths meet and shape tail as needed.
red felt wattle inserted between rolls on underside of head
Fold red felt in half. Cut a turkey wattle out of the felt with the fold at the thinnest point. Insert folded end between rolls on underside of turkey’s head
Decorate with eyes and feet. Use double stick tape to keep google eyes on. See towel pigeon folding blog for instructions on how to make the pipe cleaner bird feet.
Finished Towel Turkey
Next towel animal in My Cruise Stories Towel Animal Folding Series: Reindeer
Towel Reindeer
For instructions on other towel animals visit My Cruise Stories Towel Animal Page.
Copyright My Cruise Stories 2013
Cruise Stories 
Oh, you must have just been dying waiting for Thanksgiving to roll around to publish this, Lois! 😀
Even more for Christmas to put up the reindeer!
I bet! At least I know know that the cat’s out of the bag…and will be looking forward to next month!
PS. I hope you don’t steal all the towels from all the cruises you go on! 😉
Cruise ships have boring white towels. If anyone did try to steal them the ship would charge it to their onboard account.
I have been on a couple cruises with new stateroom stewards just learning to fold animals so I’d make one for them each day and then they’d make one of theirs in the evening. One of them would ask how to make the ones I left for him so I’d show him how. We saved all the ones both he and I made throughout the cruise and had quite the menagerie at the end.
That’s awesome!
That turkey is really something! Bet you won’t find one that fancy on a cruise ship, though we did get several rally nice ones on the cruise to Alaska. Did you make that up yourself?
I used the basic design of the pigeon and turned it into a turkey.
That’s quite an impressive towel turkey. And of course, your reindeer is not Just Any Reindeer, but Rudolph!