Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Homemade Laundry Soap, Knit-Sewing 1,Other Stitchery

For a YEAR now this month, I have been making my own laundry soap. I combined recipes and stick with
3 - 3 - 3
3 Jugs {gallon-ish size CranRaspberry bottles w/ the handle} 
3 Tablespoons each of
3 ingredients.
Dawn, the blue one.
Arm and Hammer Washing Soda
Mule Team Borax.
*Fill with some water, slowly. Shake shake shake.  Let it for ??? til the bubbles settle down, then repeat from *.  Until the whole jug is full.  I make them every 3 months or so.

These are the boxes of soaps.
 I have had them for a year....
 bet the Borax box lasts 2 years, but might need another box of Washing Soda before next summer. That's a cheesecloth 'baggy' of rice to keep the powder flowing.
I pour the mixture, one jug at a time, into my container that doesn't really look like the one above anymore [I Googled that one.]  I use the clear "cup" thing to 'measure' and put the soap into the machine.  I use about 1 and a half of them. For a SUPER load on my home machine. [picture a garbage can full of water]. I generally do 5 loads a week.  $7.69.  A YEAR AGO!  I used up the $1.07 small size of Dawn after the new year, but I use it for other things too, so....another BIG bottle was purchased.
I use the laundry mix on my glass stove top too, pouring some on a wet towel that sits and soaks to crud.
I use straight Dawn on my husbands pillowcases.  Dan has super oily skin.  I soak the cases in a strong Dawn to water solution for several days.  Takes the smell out too.

For the Sew With Knits class I am taking online, I scrounged out an old T from my granddaughters drawers.
I tried the stitches my Brother machine has for stretch, and a couple of extra, looking for a stitch that won't stretch the 'hem'.  So far so good.  I wrote the stitch numbers down.
                                      
Then I 'hemmed' the armholes on the shirt I cut the sleeves from.


That stitch did pretty well, and it's going across all the grains on the armholes.

I have picked up the vacation cloth that I started after our vacation last August, wanting to get this done before THIS August.  I added the name of the place we went, in Central OR, and the family names.


1 comment:

  1. I like how you have quilted a memory. I like those kinds of pieces best.

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