A Gift a Day Gift Nine: Camp Soap

This is another gift to go in with my older nephew's gifts.  I decided one thing you always would like to have during camping is soap and a scrubbing type of cloth to do dishes or to wash up (at least I appreciated it when I had it), so I decided to make, what my mom always referred to as "camp soap".

These are actually really easy to make and if you make them with an envelope closure you can take the soap out, use the wash cloth outer layer to scrub dishes or whatever and then place it at a warm place by the fire to dry really fast.

I used one of the yet unused washcloths I bought from Target in a package of five each on clearance a while back. I  think I paid like 1.75 per pack.  For two camp soaps I used one wash cloth cut in half.  This would also be a good way to use a towel with say a hole in it but that still has nice looking parts to it.

For the soap I used soap I had around the house.  I can get 3 bars of soap at our local store for about 1.69 per three pack, so keep an eye out for cheap soap!

Camp Soap Materials

• Wash Cloth
• 2 Bars of soap
• Sewing machine or you could hand sew these as well.
• Thread

Take 1/2 of the wash cloth and wrap the bar of soap up in it.  If you want to make an envelope closure for the soap, wrap one part of the wash cloth up about 1/2 the way up the soap and then fold the other part of the wash cloth over so that the washcloth overlaps, but not too far or it will be too hard to fit your bar of soap into the pouch later (I go for about a 1" overlap).  I would try to explain how to sew the envelope closure up for you, but I think it would get confusing as about 1/2 the time I get confused and have to rethink the sewing portion a couple of times before I figure it out (not a natural sewing type what can I say).  So, if you don't know how to do an envelope closure, mark all the way around the soap plus 1/2 an inch for seam allowance and be sure to leave one end of the soap pouch open (to insert your soap of course).

Remove soap from the equation and sew up the three sides of the soap pouch.  Turn soap pouch right side out and put soap into the pouch.  Fold the last open side of the soap pouch inward to complete a closed seam and then whip stitch the opening closed by hand (or you could use a basting stitch/really long straight stitch, to make it easier to remove and replace the soap later if the owner wishes).  My mom used to make these and then make a draw string end on one side and put a string on the soap pouch so you could hang it up or place it around your neck, but I didn't do that with these.

Total Cost to Make Gift:  I'd wager about .80 per camp soap since I only use 1/2 a wash cloth per soap.

Total Time to Make Gift:  About 1 hour between the two soaps as I had to figure out the envelope closures.