Thursday, December 29, 2011

No sew Blanket



Yay no sew! How cool is that. Okay I know...a lot of my family and friends LOVE to sew. Not me ..although I can and have in the past sewn some great things, I have never been able to feel passionate about sewing. So when I discovered this idea it really sparked my interest. I have since found out that this idea has been around a long time..mmm never mind it is now back and I love how these turn out. Also been told that they last for years! Hope so.
This is how it is done. Take two pieces of fleece fabric (make sure selvege or whatever it is called is cut away) the same size. A plain colour and a print work well. Lay them back to back, cut a five inch square from each corner. Cutting this away ensures a nice finish. Then cut one inch wide x 5 inch long strips along each side. Then tie two strips together along each side untill all strips are tied.(a colour and a print strip together)I used a version of a balloon knot (same knot you use when tying balloons) it lays bit flatter than just tying together. Be sure not to pull it too tight.
As it is summer here, there is not a lot of choices in the patterned fleece..must remember to look in the fabric stores when winter arrives.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Home made laundry soap



Well here I am again ..almost the start of a new year. We have so many blessings to give thanks and praise to God for. One blessing is being able to share my creative side with family and friends. Today I learnt how to make homemade laundry soap. This was thanks to all the people that pin things on a site called Pinterest.com It is an awesome site with a wealth of shared ideas and knowledge.
Here are some pics of my efforts today. For my first time at making this I am pretty happy with the outcome. Although I have yet to try it. There were several recipes to explore and many are very similar. The one I chose (and I did adapt it a little to suit my quantities)had one cake of pure sunlight soap grated up finely. One and a half cups of both washing soda and baking soda and 500g of Borax. These all get mixed up together and that's it! It is low sudsing so fine for the high efficency washers.
I wash with cold water, however I always disolve washing powder in warm water before adding to a load, so I shall do the same with this.