Homemade Powdered Laundry Soap - Frugal Friday

*****REVISION  2/15/2010*****

I have been using this laundry soap for over a year now and while I have saved quite a bit of money on soap I am finding that the whites are not very white anymore, so rather than be targeted for a cheer commercial I am switching back to regular laundry detergent.  Also I was reading that Borax can be a skin irritant so this may actually not be the best for ones skin, although I have had no problems with it.  In a pinch I'd still use it but long term I don't think it's done any of my clothes any favors.  It seemed great for the first 6 months or so, so my apologies if I've lead you down a path of dingy socks.  

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It's a Frugal Friday so today I made powdered laundry soap, I have a front loading washer and this works very well in it. I also use vinegar in place of Fabric softener, it helps to keep any soap film from building up as well as making clothes colors stay true for longer and making them feel softer and they don't smell like vinegar after they are dry.

Here's the recipe I made:

2 cups borax (20 Mule team)
2 cups Arm & Hammer washing soda (NOT baking soda)
1 bar fels naptha laundry soap- (finely grated so it will disolve easily in the washer)

If you are like me and do not have a food processor you can grate the soap by hand, I use a vintage rotary grater that would normally be used for hard cheese, it worked pretty well and gave me the tiny pieces I was wanting.

Once you have the soap grated you pour the 3 ingredients in a bowl, mix them till they are evenly blended, transfer them to a container with a lid to keep moisture out. That's it. I use 1/8 cup per load and the clothes have been coming out clean and smelling clean but not detergenty. I still have to spot treat just like I did with regular detergent, but that's no worse than before.

I have a friend who has extremely sensitive skin so she makes her own soap, she uses her soap in place of the Fels-Naptha bar when she makes laundry soap.

The first time I decided to try this I had a little trouble finding all the ingredients, the washing soda was the toughest. I found all three ingredients at a Fred Meyers store near me. Some people have said they get it at Wal-mart, but where I live Fred Meyers is the only place I could find that had it and I called them all. SO it might pay to call around before you waste a half tank of fuel looking for the washing soda. I have also seen some companies selling it online if you can't find it where you live.

It's a pretty simple way to save a few bucks. It will be even easier when I get a food processor. That's on my thrift list, I'll find one soon. :-) I bet I have saved enough money on my last 2 batches of laundry soap to pay for the food processor when I find it. ;-)

Cozy Carseat Cover

I just wanted to show how I made a sweater into a really cozy and convenient car seat cover for Baby B (in the picture it's a dolly).

I used a men's sweater that was a nice thick really soft wool, with a zipper up the front. It actually has a double pull so you can zip up from the lower edge if you want but that is not necessary for the cover, although it is handy. I washed the sweater and was intending for it to felt, it didn't shrink very much at all, this turned out good since the zipper needs to lay flat. I checked to see if it had felted at all and it seemed satisfactory for the purpose here.

I cut the sleeves off and cut up the side seams, placed the sweater (zipped up) over the car seat with the neck hole where baby B's head would be so that it would work as a face or neck hole for him. Then I folded the lower front edge around the edge of the car seat and pinned it at the sides, this will work best if you have the sweater inside out so that you can just sew where the pins are and turn to get the desired effect. I had a lot of extra sweater at the top edge so trimmed it off leaving a few inches to wrap around the top edge of the car seat to hold it in place. I took a large dart in each corner to follow the contours of the seat and stitched 1/4" elastic on the underside of the edge to stabilize it and keep it from sliding off, as well as along the lower front edge for the same reason. Then I cut 2 strips about 1" wide and long enough to reach to keep the sides from gaping open, stitched them on cut button holes in them (slits really), and stitched salvaged buttons on.

In retrospect I should have put the button at the other end of the little strap so you can See it as the hood covers the button now and no one ever sees it, if I had ugly buttons that would be perfect but I used cute ones so I wish they showed.

Baby B likes the cover when it's cold and windy and it keeps him from loosing his blankets while he's kicking his little feet, also helps contain socks and booties that get lost otherwise. It cost me about a dollar for the sweater on tag color day, and the buttons were salvaged from a jacket my MIL gave me to use for re-working. I love the buttons by the way.

The neck hole is really not as large as baby B's face so usually if he is awake he likes to have his whole head sticking out and wear a hat, rather than have the hole around his face. All in all I really think it worked out, and sure beats draping a blanket over the whole car seat and having the wind blow in there and the blanket sliding off and dragging in the slush and mud.

Slippers - Tutorial for DIY Cozy slippers.

Miss 8 and Miss 3 were needing some new slippers, as both have experienced growth spurts recently. We were having some incredibly cold and snowy weather the day I made these and slippers just couldn't wait, so I decided to see what I could make with things I had on hand. Originally I had all sorts of creative ideas for super cute slippers, but then as reality sank in I realized these would need to be quick and easy. Soon I was inspired by the memory of some slippers I had as a kid that would be easy to make during Baby B's nap. I used a thrifted wool/angora sweater and shearling coat, from my stash of such things. They cost less than $2 and there is still lots of shearling left.

The only special equipment you need is leather sewing needles for your zig-zag capable sewing machine and some sharp scissors or razor blade for cutting the shearling. You could hand stitch these and they would turn out really cute if you did a blanket stitch or something decorative, but you'd still want a glovers needle or leather sewing punch.

Here's how....

Start by Felting a sweater, to do this I threw it in the washer on hot and then dried it in the dryer on hot.

I traced Miss 3's foot onto a piece of paper for my pattern and cut it from the shearling with the pattern facing up for one foot and down for the other so you get a pair, you only really need about 1/4"to 3/8" seam allowance around the foot tracing. Then cut a strip of shearling about 1" wide and long enough to go around the perimeter of the sole + 1" or just cut the strip way longer than you need and cut off the excess when you are done. Cut the sleeves off the sweater in such a way as to have the distance of the cut edge measure close, but less than, the distance around the sole, this is also when you will decide how tall you want the slipper legs, Miss 3 wanted knee high slippers so we used the whole sleeve, the ribing at the cuff will help keep them up, or they can be rolled or folded down. Note: Check to see that the cuff will go over the intended foot and up to the desired part of the leg, this particular sweater would only work for Miss 3's leg unless it were an ankle high slipper.

Sew (using a long zig-zag stitich) the strip around the sole with furry sides together, the fur will be on the inside to make them extra cozy (my first pair did not turn out altogether pretty on the zig-zagged edge but I think with experience this will get easier, I am not really accustomed to sewing on shearling. A serger might work but I did not try it as I thought the shearling would be too thick). Then stitch up the back where the strip meets it's self,cut off any excess strip of shearling.

Now you are ready to sew the sweater sleeves to the sole.

Start at the back of the sole with the sweater sleeve inside out with the sole piece inside it and back seams matching, also mark the center front (or an approximate close to center front).

Then zig-zag the two together, making sure the center front is matching up when sewn. You may need to stretch the sweater a bit to make them match.

Once you have sewn all the way around all you do is turn it right side out and you have slippers that Miss 3 has proclaimed "WAM and TOZY"

I made an additional pair for Miss 8 using the body of the same sweater, avoiding the embroidered center panel by cutting from the sides and back, they had more seams but turned out ok. You would cut them out on a fold to look like the sleeves shown above, with the fold on the long edge.

You will get a piece like you see here, then sew up the back seam and you have a piece like the sleeves used in the directions above.