Baby Sling - 2

Home Sewn Baby Sling

First I have to get the technicals out of the way... I got the pattern and all of the instructions from here:


I bought my rings from Sing Rings, and my fabric from JoAnn Online. Hmm, it seems they are out of the fabric I bought, but the link takes you to the Snuggle Flannel, which is what I used.

Ok, the fun part! Here are some pics of my sling. :)

I wasn't using *my* machine, so I'll blame the ugly stitches on that. I put in 1 straight stitch and 3 zig zag stitches. I wanted to make sure it was NOT going to come apart.



I used gold thread for sewing jeans. I wanted it to be extra strong. I did run out of thread though, I had no idea that I would use an entire spool! So the very bottom hem is dark brown.



Here is me wearing it. I know it's not threaded right, and the rings should be closer to my shoulder. I just put it on to model it for Mike and then he didn't believe that I could use it for *L*... if I wanted to.

and MORE Laundry Soap

I wanted to try the liquid soap again. I really do prefer liquid, I just hated that it lumped and separated and gooped up. So, I've been experimenting.

Here's my latest concoction:
1 C. Fels Naptha
1 C. Kirk's Original Coco Castile
1 C. Washing Soda
1 C. Borax

STEP 1: Put 4C. of water on to boil. Once it's nice and hot, not necessarily boiling, add the grated soap. It melts better if you add a little at a time instead of just dumping it all in at once. Make sure it's completely melted... absolutely no lumps!

STEP 2: Add Soda and Borax to a bucket (at least 2 gallon size). Pour melted soap into bucket and stir. Once it's all completely mixed add water until your mixture reaches 2 gallons.

After 24 hours this is what it looked like.



I'll be using about 1/2 C. in each load.

I also kept about 1 1/2 C. of the mixture to use as a "stain paste." With 3 boys and a welder daddy, we have lots of stains.

Revised Homemade Laundry Soap

While we were in OH my mom and Memaw bought us (mainly the kids) a lot of thrift store clothes. My mom wanted to wash them for us so I had to buy commercial soap. I loved the way my clothes smelled. She sent the rest home with me and I used a little and was seriously contemplating buying detergent JUST for the smell. (Octagon just doesn't give your clothes that fresh clean smell.)

So then I had this brilliant idea... what kind of "smelly good" soap could I add to my detergent? I also wondered if Fels-Naptha smelled better, but I didn't know where to find it.

I went to get more Octagon and Food City didn't have any in the laundry aisle. Bummer! So I went to the hand/body soap section to see what I might be able to "add in" to my detergent. GUESS WHAT I FOUND! FELS-NAPTHA! I was so excited. (Isn't it funny what moms can be exicted about.) It really does smell 100x better than Octagon.

Here's my new, very smelly good recipe for Powdered Laundry Soap:

1C. Fels-Naptha (very finely grated)
1C. Kirk's Original Coco Castile (very finely grated)
1C. Borax
1C. Super Washing Soda

USE 1 heaping Tablespoon per load.

PS: if you click "homemade" below, you can see my other posts on laundry soap.

Homemade Baby Wipes

I found this recipe at Tipnut.com

What you need:

1 roll of Viva paper towels, cut sawed in half.


Baby Shampoo and Baby Lotion


Airtight container


and boiling water.

2C. boiling water mixed with
2T. baby shampoo and
2T. baby lotion.

Put paper towels in container, pour mixture over paper towels.
Let sit for 5 minutes then flip container over and sit for 5 more minutes.


Remove cardboard and pull wipes from center.


Total cost for 50 wipes: 64 cents, that's 1.28 cents per wipe.
(Obviously, I didn't include the cost of the container.)

I figured Huggies Refill package to be about 4 cents per wipe.

Homemade Disinfectant

I found the recipe on this site, scroll down to #14.

2C. water
a dribble of Polmolive
1/2 tsp Orange Essential Oil
1/2 tsp Tea Tree Oil

Homemade Soft Scrub/Hand Cleaner

I got the idea from Rhonda. Thank You!!

1 box Baking Soda

Murphy's Oil Soap

1/2 C. Water

5 drops Tea Tree Oil (optional)

Pour Baking Soda into bowl 

Add Murphy's Oil Soap until it's the consistency of icing. 

Stir in a few drops of Tea Tree Oil (or any essential oil)

Mix together with 1/2C. water

Pour into a clean squeezable bottle

Shake well before each use

I used Tea Tree Oil because it's well known for it's antibacterial properties... and I happened to have some. 

My husband is a welder and it's hard to find a soap that will get the stains from his hands without almost tearing his skin off... THIS WORKS!! He squirted a little on his knuckles, rubbed it in, and the dirt literally disappeared! 

Powdered Laundry Soap

As you may recall, I made Liquid Laundry Soap at the beginning of December. I gave 1/2 of it away, so it was time to make more. Kysha had mentioned that she makes the powdered version, so I thought I'd try it to see which I like better. I have to admit it's easier!

2C. finely shredded soap

(I used Octagon.)
1C. Washing Soda
1C. Borax

Use 2T per load.

Homemade Knitting Needles

I am knitting every day now. I have a long list of requests.

This is the hat that I am making for *B*. It calls for sz 13 dpn, but I had read somewhere that you can make a hat with circular needles instead. So I ordered a circular needle (from eKnittingNeedles.com). I got from the ruffles to the ribbon and realized that I HAD TO HAVE double pointed needles to finish it.

SO... I went to Lowe's (with my needle gauge) and bought a 48" dowel rod. I divided it into 5 sections and used a pencil sharpener to get my points. Then I sanded them. The finest I had was 220 grit, I still need one smaller to get the last little "kinks" out.

It only took about an hour, and the hardest part was the sharpening. If I had a "hand-cranking" pencil sharpener (or an electric one, for that matter), it would've been a piece of cake.

Here they are in use. The 2nd picture shows my mistake. When I transferred from the circular to the dpn, I kept knitting. I don't know why but I have to purl the rest of it for it to come out right. Not a big deal, just weird.

Final Cost (tax included): 94 cents.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

This whole thing got started Monday night when I watched 17 Kids and Counting on TLC. The Duggar Family makes their own Laundry Soap. I had toyed with the idea of trying it for a while, but after she said that the batch they make costs about $2 I made my decision. Also, I had no idea how EASY it actually is. The only problem is that their recipe is WAY TOO BIG. :) So I did a little research and found quite a few sites. Tip Nut has 10 different variations on one  page, but this is the one that I actually followed.

Here's what you need. Washing Soda, Borax, and soap. 



Fels Naptha is the most highly recommended, but I couldn't find it and I already had Ivory. After all was said and done, I found some Octagon. I'm going to try it the next time.

Ingredients:
1/3 bar soap
1/2 C. Washing Soda
1/2 C. Borax

On the website she said to use a full bar if using Ivory. I didn't read that until AFTER I had made mine. It came out just fine and washes better than the commercial stuff! So, 1/3 of a bar of Ivory soap is the same as 1/2 C. after it has been shredded.

Then just follow the instructions and voila!!



... enough soap to last a LONG TIME!! I've already washed 3 loads (at 1/2 C. per load), and I'm loving the results.

The first load was my husbands work clothes. (He is a welder, they get very very very dirty.) I wanted a true test. I have never gotten his clothes that clean with any commercial detergent that I have ever used.

Let me know if you usually make your own. Or if you made some after you read my post! :)