DIY wool dryer balls: natural fabric softener
DIY DIY Home Cleaning Healthy Home
Every once in a while – when I actually take my laundry out of the dryer just as it is finished rather than lazily leaving it for, oh you know, a couple of days or so – I throw it on my bed, dig my way underneath the heaping pile, and lie there enjoying the warmth until it dies out.
It is, without a doubt, one of the greatest pleasures I have ever known.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that I love fresh and clean, soft and lovely-smelling laundry. Ooh, do I love it!! (Folding? Eh, not so much.)
These DIY wool dryer balls act as a natural fabric softener, without the chemicals of liquid fabric softener. They are a better choice than the plastic dryer balls that you can purchase as these can release harmful plasticisers while in the laundry. Any while there are pre-made wool dryer balls available for purchase, they cost a pretty penny (these are over $30!). To boot, they help you decrease your environmental footprint by decreasing dry time by an estimated 25 minutes for large loads and 30 minutes for small loads!
Best yet, they are super cheap and easy to make!
What you will need:
- A roll of 100% wool yarn (between $5-$10 on average)
- An old pair of tights (or at least one leg of an old pair of tights)
Yep, that’s it!
How to make ’em:
Start by wrapping the end of the yarn around two of your fingers 50 times. Then slide it off and wrap the yarn around the bunch to secure it. Keep wrapping the yarn, slowly forming a ball, and then building on the ball until it is about 3 inches in diameter. Tie off the end and tuck it under one of the loops to secure it and prevent it from unraveling.
Make 4-6 balls.
After your yarn balls are complete, slip them into the leg of an old pair of tights as pictured below: knot one end, put a ball in, pull the tights tightly, tie a knot, and continue with all of the balls.
After you have this string of yarn balls, you will need to throw it into 2 wash and dry cycles to felt them. This will make the balls compact and prevent them from unraveling.
After they have been through 2 complete wash and dry cycles, remove the balls from the tights.
And now you have wool dryer balls!
After they are felted, there is no need to include the balls in your wash cycle. Just keep them in the dryer, where they will help naturally soften your laundry and decrease your total dry time.
I add 2 drops at the beginning of every drying cycle!
What a great way to do this! Going to be trying some DIY for 2016. This will for sure be one of them! Can you put any (E0) essential oil on these to make clothes smell good? Lemon, Grapefruit, Orange, Lavender? If so do you do it before you start the dryer or in the middle or towards the end? And do you have to do this with each drying cycle? Also how many drops?