Making Ivory Flakes

[launderess]

Just Passed A Weekend

Cleaning up some vintage linens purchased on fleaBay, and were obviously laundered with soap.

How does one know? Well after three days of soaking and washing in STPP laden water, still couldn't get the stuff out. When ironing not only was the scent of Ivory wafting up from the steam, darn linens kept sticking to the ironer. Oh they were soft and smelled lovely alright, but further proof that soap never does come out of textiles.

 

[sudsmaster]

Maybe they are made of soap.

LOL.

 

[launderess]

It Was Horrible

My poor Pfaff ironer shaked and shuddered as those darn soap laden linens stuck to the sole plate. Had to keep stopping what I was doing and clean the ironer shoe with a cloth treated with iron soleplate cleaner.

 

[sudsmaster]

A simple wash in hot water with STPP should remove all traces of the offending soap. From a chemist's viewpoint, I can't believe that the soap molecules become permanently attached to the cotton fibers. It simply would require heat and chemicals far beyond the capability of a home laundry system.

 

[gmmcnair]

Duggar's Laundry Soap

"Speaking of homemade detergents, has anyone here tried to make the Duggars homemade soap? They use fels naptha soap, but say you could use Ivory soap too. "

I make one similar (out of my handmade soap), and it works well enough in soft water on lightly soiled clothes. I do like to add about 1/2 cup of vinegar to the final rinse, and that seems to keep the colors bright and the soap from building up as much.

 

[phillygrl]

180 loads from one bar soap?

I searched for the recipe, and found one for Duggar's liquid laundry soap. It makes 10 gallons of liquid soap from one bar of Fels Naptha. Good grief, its a recipe for homeopathic soap.

 

[gmmcnair]

Non Homeopathic Soap

Homeopathic soap....LOL....I like that description!

Here's mine....it has some more bite to it.

Dissolve 1 lb pure soap in 1 gallon of boiled water.....add 1 cup of washing soda, and 1/2 cup of borax. Pour into wide mouthed container.

I make this to use up my soap scraps and trimmings from my homemade soap, and it works well enough. If I have a really moisturizing soap, I will add a big spoonful of pure lye to the water and soap to get rid of the extra oils.