Cleaning Up Our Mess

This morning's meeting topic was Stain Removal and Simple Sewing Repair. When I first became a "stay at home mom" I was eager to spend more time with my precious baby...but not so excited to do all the other household chores full time. I'm guilty of throwing away a cute dress because it was stained beyond repair. Then, Joy told us about Biz. She says to make a paste with water and put it on the stain and let it sit for 24 hours, then wash as normal.

I'm hoping these banana stains from 2 kids ago come out. I'll keep you posted! Joy said to repeat this process until the stain comes out. We also learned about Fels-Naptha, glycerin, WD-40, hydrogen peroxide and a whole hand out of useful tips for dryer sheets, color catchers, etc. Courtney gave us a recipe for

Laundry Detergent
4lb box borax
4lb box baking soda
4lb box super washing soda
2 or 3 bars of Fels naptha soap - grated (I use 3)...
1 or 2 of the 8oz tubs of Oxiclean (I use 2)
Purex crystals (optional)

Grate the soap with a cheese grater. Pour some of the borax or other powders into a blender with the grated soap. Blend until powdery. Mix all ingredients into a 5 gallon bucket or something similar. DO THIS OUTSIDE. You might be choking on powder if not. Use 1 tablespoon for a small load or 2 tablespoons for a large load. Makes 640 loads for $20-$30 depending on if you use the extra soap and oxiclean. Purex crystals are an extra $6. Target has most ingredients down the laundry aisle. The soap can be found at Publix or Winn Dixie.

Then, Jan gave us some simple sewing tips. We learned about stitch witchery to fix a hem. Peel n Stick patches for tears or even to cover a mess up. We learned about double threading a needle and using grey thread for most things...or to match a thread color when doing detailed work by hand. We also received a lesson on cotton quality and proper ironing.

Hopefully the lessons I learned this morning will help to build some cleanliness confidence or at least save a dress or two!