A few days ago, I walked into the bathroom to find, once again, our lovely handmade soap bar soggy and squished with bits of brown soap all over the sink and the counter. UGH. I have lectured our little girls several times about wasting soap and even considered switching to liquid soap. However, I love handmade soap and I wouldn’t give up easily.
I remembered an idea I read years ago about using an old onion bag to act as a soap scrap collector. I thought this might also work to prevent our little ones from using our lovely soap as a sculpting medium. Five minutes later…
It worked great. For those of you not into crafts, but having the same problem I was having might find this tip useful. I used a double layer of onion bag stretched around our scraps and secured with a twist tie. Highly functional, highly eco-friendly, but sadly ugly.
Since I am always on the lookout for how I can use knitting to solve my problems in life, it wasn’t hard to come up with a prettier solution. I present to you the “Itty-Bitty Soap Scrap Sack”, using leftover sock yarn.
At first I made a larger version, about the size of a bar of soap, but found this unnecessary for our purposes. We have lots of scraps of gorgeous handmade soap since my sister is a soap-maker and we get all the leftover bits we want! This bag is only 1 3/4″ x 3″ and is perfect for us. It can be whipped up in less than an hour. I particularly love projects like this because I am a ‘product knitter’ through and through and really enjoy the instant gratification of quick knits! This is my first time sharing a design of my own, so I would love to know if you make one and to see your photos, too. Click below for the pattern:
LOVE IT!!! you rock Christine
So cool~ I don’t knit but maybe I can use an old knit sock? Just cut and sew it smaller?
I will be back later to read the post under this one and comment! I have MOPS this morning and have to get the kiddos ready!
((((((HUGS))))))
Blessings to you my dear blog friend~
Warmly,
Georgiann
I think sewing an old (pretty, of course!) sock would work well. I do think wool would work better than cotton, though, for sudsing factor, but any old acryllic sock would be good, too. Goodness knows there are enough little, single socks in a house full of children.
What a cute idea! I don’t have little kids who destroy soap bars any more, but I do have lots of soap scraps. And your solution is so much cuter than others I’ve seen. Thanks!
Laura
Thanks, Laura.
I made several of these last Christmas and they work awesome. I did make one concession… I discovered, through use, that the scratchy acrylic yarns make the *best* shower scrubbies. A couple of well placed cables and they work wonderful.
Great tip, Roberta, on the shower scrubbies!
Thanks for the pattern; love it! I love home-made soaps and always felt a little guilty throwing away the scraps ;o)
…and wouldn’t this make a lovely teeny-tiny gift bag?
Yes! I think it would make the sweetest little bag for a piece of jewellery or something else small. It would be great for a child, too, as little girls always love teensy things.
Thanks so much for the comment. I am looking forward to seeing everyone’s projects.
Thank you so much for sharing this. Yes i looked at the onion bag and thought, even if it did save the soap and the mess it really is so ugly.
I then thought perhaps she is leading up to something better and ….there it was.
This is so terrific.
I now just need to knit it or one of our daughter, perhaps as a Christmas gift.
Blessings
I think I left a comment before but not sure if I deleted it by mistake.
I love the knitted bag over the Onion Bag and alos think a sock would work.
Sometimes you just need to see other peoples ideas to get the creative juices flowing.
God Bless
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[...] This soap saver would be a great gift for Tantor the elephant, from Tarzan, because he doesn’t like germs. [...]