Made By Lex

Make Your Own Laundry Detergent

When I began a while ago trying to eliminate toxins from our home I always looked at the ingredients of my laundry detergent and knew that all that stuff in there couldn’t be good-Not just for the environment but for our family. I began buying the natural laundry detergent but it was costly. My sister in law showed me this recipe to make your own and I’ve been doing it ever since. Mine only has 5 ingredients and costs about $3 per jug of detergent!!!

(Recipe adapted from The Simple Dollar)

What you will need:

1 bar of soap ( For best results use a bar with pure and natural ingredients)

1 c. of washing soda (This is NOT baking soda. If you can’t find it, look online to order it. You’ll use it for tons of other things.)

1/2 c. borax (I also tried oxyclean and this works much better)

Water

A couple dashes of your favorite Essential Oil

Container ( I use an old laundry detergent container. It’s just easier to me. You can use a large bucket and lid, as well.)

Next step, grate your soap. I love this part. It’s just so funny grating soap.

Boil it in about 4 cups of water until it all dissolves and is nice and soapy.

Once it is dissolved, turn the heat off. Then add your borax, washing soda and essential oils to this. Make sure it is all dissolved.

I  carefully pour this into my container.  Then I fill it up with water. If you are using a bucket, fill the bucket up with about 6 Liters of water. Mix it up well. Let it sit overnight before using it. I shake mine periodically to mix it up well. Sometimes it gets a little thick and I just shake it in my container. That’s one of the reasons why i really like having it in the laundry detergent jug.

Honestly, this is SO easy and SUCH a great money saver. And if you are questioning if it works as well as the other junk, trust me, it does. It is just as effective and the best part is it’s safe for the environment and YOU!

Prost to the Host Giveaway!

I’m thrilled  to be back with a special giveaway- one that I’m so jelaous of! Have you heard of Prost to the Host?

Maybe you’ve seen her works at  Anthropologie’s wedding shop, BHLDN, Powell’s Bookstores, Crafty Wonderland Pop-Up Shop or a boutique near you. Let me show you what she’s all about.

White Stripes Pillow Tutorial

I needed a little change on our bed so I decided to make a pillow from some leftover scraps I had. It’s no surprise, I adore white and all shades of it. I love the changes in texture of this pillow. Here’s what I did. I cut a euro sham sized pieces (26×26 completed, so add a little extra) of fabric. I got lots of different strips of fabric and pinned them to the pillow, overlapping them slightly.

Continue all along the pillowcase.

Sew the strips down, about 1/2 an inch in.

Next what I did was sew the opposit way, like a grid. I alternated the direction I was going to it would create even more texture. It created little folds of the edge of the fabric.

For the back, cut out two pieces, one slightly longer than the other. After topstitching the edges, place them, on top of the cover of your sham, right side down. Make sure one lays over the other about two inches. Then stitch the pillow all the way around.

Here’s the finished pillow.

I love all the texture in it and how it brings in all the different shades of white that were already on  my bed.

You could do this with so many different colors and it’s a great way to use extra fabric!

Have a beautiful weekend!

Guest Blogger- Blue Eyed Freckle

A few weeks ago I discovered Blue Eyed Freckle. And Fell. In. LOVE.

Meet Katie.

She’s awesome and incredibly inspiring and artistic. So creatively stimulating that I had to show you all her website. She’s guestposting here today. Then GO GO GO and check out the amazing things she does!

Ruffled Wall Décor Tutorial

This project was inspired by a wall mural I created with my visual manager while working at Anthropologie in Geneva, IL. (photos below are of the original piece I created)

To create this version, I did the following:

MATERIALS:

-Approx 1 yd worth of 1 1/2-2 in. wide strips of various FABRICS or PAPERS

-Large paper for backing (butcher paper, etc—I used a roll of pinkish paper I found at Lowes)

-glue gun

-tape and tacs

-sewing machine

1. I cut strips out of fabrics with different textures and dyed some of them to have more varied hue.

2. I pleated/ruffled them on my sewing machine (I don’t ever pin beforehand, I just pleat or ruffle as I go, so that I can get a lot done very fast.)

3.I started to place them on the paper into different organic shapes, playing with the color and line as I went.

4. I hot-glued the strips down onto the paper, and then cut them out, creating a scallop around the edges.

5. To put them on the wall, I first put painter’s masking tape on the back. I then positioned them on the wall, constantly stepping back to decide if the flow of shapes was pleasing to the eye.

6. I then attached them to the wall with thumb tacks! Done!

Don’t forget to enter for the giveaway!

Tags: anthropologie, blueeyedfreckle, guest blogging, home, ruffles, wall art
Posted in home, other | 11 Comments »

Sweater Pillow Tutorial

Turn the sweater inside out and pin it ALL the way around. We are going to sew all four sides shut because we will just stuff it from the front buttons. After pinning, Sew all four sides.

Turn the pillow right side out and open the buttons.

Get some stuffing and stuff the pillow as full as you like it.

Now, button the pillow back up.

Here’s what it looks like!!

Didn’t it turn out beautiful!! And it took me 15 minutes!