Lavender laundry detergent

I have seen a few posts on how to make your own laundry detergent. Since I love a good home chemistry experiment, I decided to make a batch. I should clarify and say that I am really mixing my own laundry detergent since I am not making the soap. Either way, it is pretty fun to do and very cost effective. I made a concentrated laundry powder using liquid lavender castile soap, vinegar, borax, washing soda and baking soda. I based my mix on the powdered laundry detergent recipe I found at The Diaper Jungle. The only difference with my mix is I add an extra cup of borax. The mixture initially was a thick paste and after about an hour or so it turned into a nice powder. It takes quite a bit of stirring to remove all the clumps and the mixture does heat up from the combination of the vinegar and baking soda so be a little careful. I do love the way the detergent smells and that is based on the type of soap you use so pick something you really like. I love lavender and the lavender castile soap is really fragrant and nice.

I am currently using the homemade detergent to wash the diapers and it is working well so far. I only use a third of cup per full load and not a half as shown in the recipe. I have seen notes about the homemade detergents causing build up, but that hasn't been a problem so far. It should be noted that most of my diapers are made of hemp and other natural materials. I have a few bumgenius aio's, but I don't use them all time so only time will tell if the detergent is a problem with the all synthetic diapers.

Aqua hemp fleece diapers

A good friend of mine had a beautiful little boy a little while ago. I made two diapers for her out of the aqua dyed hemp fleece. I lined the diapers with recycled Polartec stretch microfleece. I made the soaker out of three layers of hemp fleece and sewed it to the liner so no stuffing required. I did keep a pocket on the top so she can add more absorbency. I also made a burp cloth and matching bib set. I really love the aqua color and the fabric is so soft. I used my snap pliers and again and have to say I really love the snap diapers. I am in the process of making a few new ones for the little guy also. I love new diapers and can't help but make a few more for my little guy.

Hemp fleece sleep sac

I made a summer sleep sac for the little guy out the hemp and organic cotton fleece. I used his winter sleep sac as a pattern and added a few inches to the bottom. I made this one sleeveless of course since it is for summer time. I got a chance to use my lovely snap pliers again and put a row of snaps on the front. It is super soft and comfy for sleeping.

Japanese sewing book

The Japanese sewing book I ordered last week came in the mail today and I am super excited. I ordered the pattern book through Pomadour's Craft Cafe on etsy. Great place to buy the sewing books. I received the pattern book from Japan in a little over a week so great customer service. I am so excited to get sewing. The pattern book I bought is One Day Sewing Summer Clothes. I ordered a fairly simple pattern book to start out since it is all in Japanese. The diagrams are very detailed though so I don't think I will have any problems. I am off to cut out my first pattern while the little guy naps. Exciting!

Hemp linen dress

I recently dyed hemp linen fabric in a light Jade Green using the fiber reactive dyes from Dharma Trading Company. I love hemp linen in the summer time. It is so comfortable to wear when it is hot. It drapes really nicely and creates wonderful flowing skirts and dresses. It is a real treat to wear and makes me feel a little less sticky in the humid summertime. I used two patterns to make this dress including Style 2914 and New Look 6953. I started out making a long skirt and made it too tight in the hips so I decided to add a bodice and turn it into a dress. I made it knee length originally and then added the bottom ruffle since I had a bit of fabric left over. It is perfect to wear to the park with my little guy.

Happy 2nd Birthday!

My little guy turned 2 years old! I have so many wonderful memories of him over the past two years. The time has gone by quickly , but I also feel like we have packed in so much wonderful time together over these past two years. I wanted his birthday to be really special this year. Last year we all had stomach flu so I definitely wanted to celebrate big this year since we are all healthy. We had a wonderful birthday party last Saturday at a local park. I found clip art images online at Scrapping Doodles and let him pick the theme. He really liked the robots so we had an outer space party with martian headbands, t-shirts and cupcakes. I made everything myself and it was pretty easy to get it all together once I found all the images. For the table, I enlarged some of the images, cut them out and put them on top of white paper. For the favors I made crayon rolls filled with soy crayons from Stubby Pencils Studio. Everyone had a fun time coloring on the table. I made the maple cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and they were super yummy. I have the say the party was pretty perfect and my little guy had a wonderful time.

Printing on fabric

We love the Tractor Mac series books. We received signed copies of the books from his great Aunt and Uncle in NY city. My aunt works for American Airlines and she knows the pilot Billy Steers who writes the book so very cool. I found a great image of Tractor Mac on the book website and decided to applique it on a t-shirt for my little guy. I used print on fabric sheets from Dharma Trading Company. I printed the design on the fabric sheet and then used heat and bond to iron it on the t-shirt. I top stitched around the design and all done. It was a very quick and easy project. My little guy is very happy with his Tractor Mac t-shirt.


I used the print on fabric sheets a few years ago to make a special quilt for my sweet little Violet. I wanted something special in the house that would remind me of her. The quilt is hanging up in our bedroom and I love that he looks at the quilt now and says her name. He loves all the colors and I love that her playful spirit lives on in our house.

New clothesline

We put up a clothesline off the back deck a few weeks back. It is a huge improvement from the previous setup I had going that I dubbed the underwear tree. I am really excited to be able to spread out the diapers a bit and have lots of room for a big load of laundry. Funny how exciting a new clothesline can be. It is the little things in the life of a domestic goddess that make all the difference.

Teeny shirts and shorts

I am working on summer clothes. We had a few hot days a while ago and I realized I don't have any comfortable shorts or t-shirts that still fit him. I received two large bags of t-shirts from friends and started to put them to good use. I dyed a few of the t-shirts using jade green fiber reactive dye. They turned out a beautiful light shade of aqua. I made a few lap shoulder t-shirts using a pattern I came up with from another t-shirt. I also made a pair of Teeny shorts using the same pattern except I omitted the cuffs and made the pants shorter. I am really happy with the result and plan to make a few more pairs of shorts for him for the summer.

Teeny recycled t-shirt diaper

I mentioned previously that I like to tinker with patterns. Here is another versions of the diaper pattern. This time I decided to add a gusset similar to the Teeny pants to the back of the diaper. The gusset actually serves two purposes in that it gives extra room to the rise in the back and also breaks up the pattern so it fits easier on a t-shirt. With the previous diaper patterns I cut off the wings to economize on fabric and also to fit the pattern on a wider variety of t-shirts. This works well in general, but does slightly restrict the wing stretch. I don't think it makes a big difference, but it is an added bonus to have the full stretch in the new pattern. The last and most important benefit for the new pattern is that it looks really great with the two colors. It is so fun to have a two tone diaper with a fancy curved gusset in the back. I suppose I should have mentioned that first since it the real reason why I came up with yet another diaper pattern. I also changed the inside lining of the diaper. I use the recycled power stretch micro fleece on the lower portion only and line the top part at the waist band with hemp fleece. It is not a huge difference, but I like that he has a little natural and organic fabric around his waist along with the stay dry lining. I also added a layer of hemp fleece to the entire diaper and it is still trim.

Sweatshirt teeny pants

I made him another pair of Teeny pants. This time I used an extra large sweatshirt I found at the thrift store. The fabric is a combination of cotton and polyester fleece and is really soft. I incorporated the bottom cuff of the sweatshirt into the cuff of the pants. Pretty cute overall and he has some great gym pants.