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I guess you would think that fabric + soap = clean fabric

But it’s never about the obvious things with me, now is it??

I was reading this thread on the Dish soap forum about lining soap molds with fabric.   Now I do LOVES me some fabric, and I have quite a large stash of it, so I knew I had to try out this old school method.  I had been lining molds with parchment paper, but the idea of reusable fabric sounded better.  Besides, I really hated folding all that paper to fit the wooden box mold.

So I made up another small batch of pure castile soap last night.  Just olive oil and lye, plus some water.  Then I poured it into a small wooden box that was lined with some dampened medium weight linen.  After sitting in the mold overnight, here’s how the soap looked this morning.  Still pretty soft, but hard enough to unmold and cut into slices of soap.

It came out of the box fairly easily, even though some soap soaked through the linen and stuck to the wooden box.  It was not difficult to pull the fabric and soap out of the box.  You can see below how the soap soaked into the fabric while it was still liquid, then it wicked its way up higher on the fabric past the level of the soap.  Here I’ve pulled a side of linen away from the soap.  (it pulled away easy enough)

Now some soap makers are already saying “yuck!” because they like their soap sleek and smooth.  But I was hoping for the wrinkles and texture – which is what I got with the linen.  Here’s the block of soap completely free of it’s linen wrap.  (linen wrap?  It sounds like mummy soap)

Are you thinking what I’m thinking?  It looks like cheese!  I was trying to capture the texture of the soap with the crosshatching of the linen.  It also seems that the linen holds onto air bubbles, where a smooth liner will let those escape.  I tapped the mold full of wet soap on the counter to release bubbles, but the side bubbles stay trapped by the rough fabric.

I cut the block into slices of soap.  Three of the edges have that linen texture.  Of course it will go away after a few washings, but it’s cool to start out with the fabric texture.

As for the liner, I just threw it in the washing machine along with the other soap rags and a few towels.  It’s ready to use again next time.

And while I’m showing photos of soap, here’s the other batch I whipped up last night.  (imagine the smell of blackberries – that’s what it smells like)

I’m working on my next blog post to share all the soap and stuff I’ve made thus far.  Then after that, I promise to get back to sewing.  I have several pairs of ruffle pants cut and waiting for their organic cotton knit butts to be attached.   Time to jump off my soapbox.  Wheee!

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