Making Soap

I've had this idea in my craw for some time now - I've been meaning to make my own laundry detergent. I've researched it many times over the years, corresponded through e-groups with others who have already taken the plunge and even went so far about a month ago as to purchase all the supplies I thought I needed and let the All Free Clear hit the bottom of the barrel without replacing it. Unfortunately, just as the All went dry I realized I was missing an ingredient to my laundry soap. Yesterday I got everybody shoed, coated and ready for a trip to Wally World to find some Fels Naptha and a 5 gallon bucket with a tight-fitting lid when I realized Clifford was sick and needed to stay in the driveway nursing a broken serpentine belt. I finally made it out at 10:00 last night, couldn't find the Fels Naptha and had to settle for Ivory instead. So here's the results of our work today. I found this site to have the most clear directions. We doubled the recipe posted here.

First Betsy grated the bar of Ivory soap and that went in the pot


Then we added water and heated it up until the soap flakes dissolved.


We measured out the Borax and the Washing Soda (how cute are those measurers?!)


and added those to our mixture (or the mixter as Miriam called it).


We poured all that into the bucket


We added lots of water


and stirred some more


Wa-lah! About 4 1/2 gallons of homemade laundry detergent!


Somehow the Science teacher even managed to make a science lesson out of it at the dinner table! I love homeschooling!