How to Reuse Swiffer Wet Jet

I was stuck in a bind yesterday.  I was elbow deep in dirt and grime and up to my eyes in dirty laundry.  In the thick of cleaning (and looking quite haggard I might add) I remembered "oh no I'm out of swiffer cleaner!!"  I thought to myself how in the world am I going to mop since I'm sure as heck not getting cleaned up just to go to the store to buy cleaning solution.  Enter what I thought was an original idea of refilling the Swiffer bottle with my own cleaning solution.  I tried as hard as I could to get that darn cap off the bottle.  It wasn't going to budge.  Then I thought "I cannot be the only person to wonder about this" so I Googled it!  Here is a video of how to take the cap off! Who knew it only took like 15 seconds in boiling water!?

It worked perfectly! Then I went in search for a homemade cleaning solution.  I used my own concoction but loosely based on the one posted here.  I had a smaller bottle to mix in which was only 12 oz and put in about 1/8 cup white vinegar and 1/2 tsp baby shampoo fill the rest of the bottle with warm water (not sure if it's important to be warm or not but I think it helped to dissolve the baby shampoo).  It worked like a wonder!  No streaking or anything on the tile floor! Linoleum looked good too.  

Now seriously, I can't believe I bought these before now and didn't know I could do it myself!!  I am going to use up the Costco size box of the pads that I bought back in Virginia but as soon as they are gone I'm going to use the tutorial here on turning a cloth baby diaper (I used them as burp cloths when Hayden was a baby) into a pad.  Seems super easy!  Or on Tipnut they have a whole slew of knitting and crochet patterns (which of course appeal to me! ha) Why spend money on things that you can make yourself! And so simply too! :)  Hope this is helpful to you!

DIY T-Shirt Skirt

If I told you that this skirt was free would you believe me?  Well it was free because it came from our "donate to Goodwill" pile!  An upcycled skirt! This adorable skirt used to look like this...

And then I came across an amazing idea! I sat in front of my computer and looked at my husband and said out loud "I've found the solution to all my problems!" He looked at me rolled his eyes and said "what now, honey" and I said "a t-shirt!".  Can you imagine the look I got after that statement!? ha!  Over at Sew Like My Mom she shows all the great skirts she has made!  I loved the blue and white striped one!

Here are the basic instructions

1. Find an old XL or larger t-shirt or polo from your husband's "donate" pile or thrift store

2. Cut across right under the arm pits

3. HAND WIND elastic thread into your bobbin.  (If you let your machine wind it in there it will be too tight!) Use coordinating thread in the top threader.

4. Line up your presser foot along the cut end of the t-shirt and use that as your guide to keep your lines straight.  Backstitch a couple times first to keep your stitches from coming out and backstitch again once you make your way around.   

5. Line your presser foot up to the line of stitches you just made to keep your next stitches straight and sew across again making sure to backstitch both in the beginning and when you make your way back around.  Do this as many times as you like (I did 4 lines of stitches for mine).

6. Take your steamy iron to the stitches to make them shrink up a bit for extra stretchiness.  

7. Take a step back and look at what you have made! :) A "new" spring skirt! ADORABLE!  

This blue skirt was actually my first attempt.  It was an XL mens t-shirt from Dollar Tree!  :)  Pretty much anyone that has a sewing machine and knows how to use it can make one! So get to it! And let me know how they turn out!