Making Laundry Soap

I am a Pinterest addict. I have found so many great ideas from there. The newest one making your own laundry soap. Until recently we'd had success with store bought laundry soap but Holli has been getting rashes from the soap lately. And yes, I know it's the soap. Holli is in her half nudist phase and only likes shirts. She has only been getting the rash on her upper body but not her lower body. Let her go naked and it goes away.

So when I saw a friend pin DIY Laundry Soap I wanted to try it and tonight I tried making some. It came out great! I followed the recipe from Why Not Sew? Quilts' blog. Reading through the comments I found out it's great for sensitive skin and HE washer compatible. Both of which I needed. Tomorrow we are going to start using it on laundry. It works out well because I needed new laundry soap anyway.

To make your own laundry soap you will need:
1 bar of soap (we used Irish Spring)
1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda
1 large pot that will hold 2 gallons (We used an extra canning pot but a 10 qt stock pot would work perfectly.)
A grater
A large spoon
A funnel
2 gallons of water
2 1-gallon jugs/bottles or 1 2-gallon jug


Directions:
Grate your soap into the stock pot.
Add 1 gallon of water to the pot.
Cook until all the grated soap has dissolved. I brought it to a small boil to make sure it all dissolved.
Add the borax and the washing soda.
Bring the soap mixture to a boil.
Boil for about 1-2 minutes.
Turn off the heat and add 1 gallon of cold water.
Stir well making sure to scrap the bottom of the pot for any soap that may be on the bottom.
Using the funnel pour 1 gallon of laundry soap into each container. Be careful when pouring as it bubbles up a little when you pour it in.

Some picture fun:

1 bar of Irish soap grated up

Getting ready to add the two soaps

Just after adding the 2nd gallon of water

The finished product. It's sitting on the counter cooling off ready to go for tomorrow.