Liquid Soap DIY

This year I am on a mission to be more crafty. I know I do a lot of sewing and crocheting but I don't do a whole lot of crafty projects. My ultimate goal is to make a few batches of those fancy whipped bar soaps. I'd love to keep some and give a few away as gifts! So I decided to dip my toes into the soap world with a super easy project, turning a bar of soap into liquid hand soap! 

In our household, we go through liquid hand soap fairly quickly. I've heard of people turning a bar of solid soap into roughly a gallon of liquid hand soap and decided to do some searching. I sorted through several recipes and decided to experiment with my own mix. There are lots and lots of different formulas online, I just mixed and matched and adjusted ratios according to the size of the bar of soap I had on hand. 

I used:

1 bar of 3.8oz. soap (roughly 2 cups of grated soap flakes)

20 cups of water

2 tbsp. Glycerin (available in your local drugstore, usually in the first aid section)

Cheese grater 

Measuring cup

Large pot

Grate the soap using the smaller sized grater. It will end up in flakes and powder and a 3.8oz bar will yield about 2 cups. 

Measure and pour 20 cups of water into the pot and add the soap flakes.

Add the 2 tbsp. of Glycerin to the mix and stir.

Heat the mix on low to medium heat and continue to stir until the flakes melt. 

Remove from heat and allow to cool. I let mine sit over night. 

It was a little thick the next morning so I used my hand mixer to sir it up and I added a little bit of water. I kept adding until it was the consistency of liquid soap.

And here's the finished product! I washed a re-used some empty containers I had. 

I have used the soap several times and it seems to work just fine. It feels a different compared to liquid soap and isn't foamy. I have heard that some bar-to-liquid soaps can mold when left too long so the general estimation I found for usage time was about a month. I'll update this post in a month's time to let you all know how my soap fared. :)

My Upcycled Knitting Needle Roll!

My knitting and crochet needles and hooks have been in disarray for far too long! After spending 10 minutes digging through my bag I decided I really needed to get all that in order. I've seen several styles of these roll cases on various tutorials and for sale on Etsy but I wanted one with my own size spaces and I wanted it to be out of recycled fabrics. The skirt I used for the outer fabric was actually one I've had since my teens. I gave it to my sister years ago and she found it recently and returned it to me for upcycling. The white fabric was a men's casual shirt. Here is what I've come up with!

What you'll need:

Fabric - I cut mine 15 inches wide by 17 inches tall (half inch seams)

Fusible fleece (optional, cut slightly smaller than fabric)

Thread

Scissors

Pins

Measuring tape

Marking pen (I prefer disappearing ink)

Button

Elastic

Sewing machine

Iron

First I cut the fabrics. I cut the outer fabric from the front of the skirt since it was seamless and I did the same with the back of the skirt. Then I cut the fusible fleece, slightly shorter on all sides but approx. half an inch, than the fabric. Generally when sewing you want to fuse the interfacing/fleece to the outer fabric to give it shape and structure but since the skirt fabric I was using was a stretch fabric, I fused it to the wrong side of the lining fabric. 

Next I fused the fleece to the fabric. I've found the easiest way to get a secure fuse is to use a damp pressing cloth (I use white muslin). Always fuse fleece from the fabric side as the fleece can melt. Place the damp cloth over the area to be fused and press until the cloth is dry but don't drag the iron. 

Then I cut the first pocket. I placed the fused lining fabric over the remaining piece of the skirt to get an accurate measurement of the height of the pocket. Then I cut around the lining and pinned the fabrics together to hold them. 

Then for the second pocket I did the same thing. I removed the buttons from the remaining shirt front and used that piece since it was already finished at the top. And since it was the row I plan on using for the crochet hooks I used one for measurement.

Next I pinned all the layers together and measured for the needle/hook spaces. I marked most of the spaces 1.25 inches except for the last one, before the big pocket, which was 1.5 inches. I stitched them through all layers, starting from the middle and working outwards. Fabric tends to shift when there is some sort of padding and working from the middle out helps me keep my fabric even. That and lot of pins... ;-)

Once all those layers were stitched, I pinned the outer fabric, right sides together, to the lining and stitched. I marked the opening for turning since I usually forget about it... I also used elastic for my closure. I made a loop with a small piece of elastic (you can even use a hair tie), and pinned it with the loop on the inside of the layers.

Once the stitching was done I trimmed the excess fabric and trimmed the corners. Just don't cut the stitching! 

Once the fabric is turned, press! You can use a dull pencil, or in my case a knitting needle, to get the corners out and even. Then top-stitch around the edge to close the opening. 

Stitch a button on the outside and you're finished! I put all my needles and hooks in the case first and then folded it to determine the button placement. Once I started putting everything in I realized I wanted a smaller pocket for my yarn needles so I stitched it by hand to the white pocket. Here's my finished case!