Onesie Transformation

Okay so summer isn't even here yet, and the days have become quite warm and disgustingly humid..a sign of a possibly super warm and humid summer? Who knows..it's Nebraska. It very well could be snowing in July.

Well, knowing very well how warm it will become in a few months, I have prepared myself by buying my lil' 1 month old some sleeveless onesies she can wear.

But who wants to wear a plain white onesie! BORING!

In the past, I would have just tie dyed these onesies and voila! Color! But I'm in no way a professional tie-dyer (is this a word?) and only about 2 out of 5 shirts come out cool- leaving the other 3 really not that desirable.

Soo..

I bought some cool looking felt, and used some of my old fabric scraps to cut out shapes and cool designs.

I used Aleene's Fabric Fusion permanent fabric adhesive to 'glue' these designs onto the fabric. Remember to place a piece of cardboard between the layers of fabric so your shirts don't glue themselves together!

Of course being an owl fanatic I had to do some owl ones!

Now, these are the side snap shirts, which I love- 1) they don't get in the way of that pesky belly button stump newborns have for the first 2-3 weeks and 2) they're cute.

These shirts are perfect for baby to wear on those super hot and humid nights instead of pj's.

Hello Kitty ones of course!

Hearts, a make-shift owl and a crescent moon.

The owl was cut from the tie dye felt, and I had to keep telling myself to quit stressing about how it looked! I'm not going to get it perfect- and dog gone it, who cares!

Once the glue dries, I reinforce these 'appliques' with stitching. I just do this by hand.

Now the checkout lady at the fabric store told me that felt isn't machine washable, but then she noticed on the back of the felt where the price tag sticker is, that there was a symbol of a washing machine, so these must be washable. So just a heads up to look for this symbol if you plan on washing felt.

I tried it out by washing the first one I did- the heart one, and it looks just like it did before washing.

Make Your Own Handsoap!

Realizing how much money our household was spending on hand soap, I knew I needed to find a recipe to make our own. Luckily, I found a super easy recipe on Pinterest, and the soap turned out great. Now, this soap is a bit on the runny side, but it cleans your hands none the less. Also, it cost WAY less that buying hand pump liquid soap at the store- even cheaper than those 'refiller' bottles. 

I used Yardley bar soap- which is only $.97 at your local drugstore, then the glycerin which cost me about $1.25. Just these two items, plus the water needed, made almost a GALLON of hand soap! At the final cost of just over $2.00! You can't beat that!

So don't throw away your old soap pump containers- you will use them for your handmade soap!

Here's what you need:


1 8oz bar soap
2 tbsp liquid glycerin
1 gal water
cheese grater
funnel (very helpful)
empty 1 gal container
large cooking pot (one you don't care for or one set aside just for crafting)

First, gather your ingredients and supplies.

1) Grate your soap


2) Fill a pot with 1 gallon water and shavings. Add 2 tbsp of liquid glycerin and turn your heat to medium/high and stir until soap dissolves. I let mine stew for about 25 mins and stirred frequently.

3) Let cool for at least 10-12 hrs.


4) The soap should end up a snot-like consistency (gross, I know.. but it's the truth!). If the soap is harder than it should be, blend it while adding just a bit of water.
My soap was a little thick in places, so I threw on some latex gloves and dove right in and mixed by hand.


5) Use a funnel to pour the soap into your gallon container.

The final result:

Super easy and cheap hand soap!

I will never buy store bought AGAIN!!!