Savvy Chic Laundry

If you ever get tired of waiting on your dryer to finish the load, or if you'd rather spend your money on things other than fabric softener and dryer sheets, this post is for you.  The project is worth the little effort required.  Cloth diapering mamas, you shouldn't live without these! 

A few months ago, my sweet Mom and I read an online tutorial and made wool dryer balls.  There is more than one way to skin a cat, and also to make dryer balls.  We used this site as our guide: http://ecofriendlyhomemaking.com/2011/02/tutorial-on-how-to-make-wool-dryer-balls/.  I highly recommend this tutorial and that you read it before continuing on this post. 

Mom and I found a large piece of wool at her house.  We fleeced it according to the instructions and got started.  I'm going to confess now where I went wrong.  In the beginning, I used pinking shears (scissors with the zigzag cut used to keep fabric from fraying) to cut the strips.  It was really NOT necessary, and it kills the hands.  Regular scissors came to the rescue.  Then, I rolled and stitched the fabric strips into a ball.  It was more time consuming than I anticipated.  I make no bones about the fact that I love crafts...with instant gratification.  Here is what it looked like:

Mother knows best, though.  She cleverly got the idea to just wind the strips and make two large stitches from one side to the other.  To be clearer, there were knots at north, south, east, and west...  It looked kind of like a rosette.  This was savvy genius!  She was making them so quickly.  In the laundry, they work equally well.

How well do they work?  Wool is magic.  Clothes are sooo nicely fluffed.  The best part is drying time has been shaved by at least ten minutes per load!  I don't think I'll ever go back to dryer sheets.  The question I sometimes get is, "How is the static?"  They don't eliminate all static, but it's minimal.  I might find a dryer ball or two clinging to some gym shorts (or other ultra-synthetics).  Hope that someone else gets use from these.  Blessings!

You might also like my laundry detergent mixture:  http://misssavvychic.blogspot.com/2011/11/laundry-detergent-mixture.html