Recipe for Dryer Sheets

Awhile back I started making homemade wool dryer balls in hopes of replacing them for dryer sheets. Many reviews have said that they have had great success with these wool dryer balls because they
1. eliminate static
2. soften clothes
3. speed up drying time to make your dryer more efficient

So, I made them at the end of this last summer:

1 spool of 100% wool yarn for one ball (has to be the kind that will felt when you wash it-if it says "washable" then it's not the right kind)
1 crochet hook


Wind the yarn into a ball. About half way through, cut it off and tuck the end into the ball using the crochet hook. Then put the ball into an old foot of a nylon and tie in a knot. Throw in your washer machine with a few loads to felt it. Then throw the nylon with the yarn ball (or more-you can tie up several in a chain) into your dryer to complete the felting process. Now you have a core for your ball.

Use the rest of the yarn to wrap around the ball making it bigger and closer to the size of a tennis ball. Tuck the end into the ball with a crochet hook. Now put it into a nylon again and repeat the felting process in the washer machine and dryer.

Now you can take them out of the nylon and leave them in your dryer with every load.

I used one of these for several loads and my clothes still had static. Upon further research, I made sure that I didn't over dry the clothes..it improved but still had static. Running the dryer on my auto moisture cycle helped insure I wasn't over drying them.

So, I did more research and it turns out that some places are just too dry for these to eliminate all the static. My next tactic was to use more than one but I noticed no difference even with 4 balls in my dryer load. BUT- they did speed up drying time which made my dryer more efficient and they did soften the clothes!

So, now I use a combo of wool dryer balls (here's a good tutorial but the only thing I did differently was to actually tie the nylon in a knot at each ball because when I tied it off with yarn it came undone and was a huge tangled nest mess in my washer!) and a washcloth sprayed with liquid fabric softener. This eliminates having to buy dryer sheets and makes the fabric softener last a long time which saves me money. I use the same washcloth over and over and wash it from time to time to get rid of build up.

Go here to see my homemade laundry detergent recipe.