Luffa Back Scrubber Sponge
I made this scrubber in 1 day, taking longer than when you would do it because of taking a million photos of every step and then some (ok, ok, 126 photos). I think if you were to just sit down, have everything you need ready and at hand for this project, you could probably do this in a couple of hours. This does not include drying time for the oil and my version has one coat of oil, I think two coats would be better. this means you’d have to spread this project out over 3-4 hours or even a couple hours of each day of the weekend.
Please read the step by step instructions before you start sawing, drilling & cutting. I made a mistake on where to drill the holes cause I thought I could work it out once sewing. But I couldn’t, so it needed adjusting. I am including my mistakes as I think it’s important to see whole processes of how things are made though. Correct holes are the next step after the mistake.
Despite the mistakes, oodles of swearing, slippery fingers etc, I am absolutely THRILLED to bits to have made this and I truly look forward to what you will create with your home grown luffas!
Do check out the other DIY tutorials on what you can make with your luffas. No matter how small!
link here – link here – link here – link here – link here
Supplies
Homegrown Luffa sponge
Piece of wood
40cm long
Sandpaper + sander
grid 60 and 120
Drill + 3mm & 6mm drillbit
Boiled linseed oil
Cotton string
Mine came from tesco
Thick, blunt needle (tapestry)
How to
1
Supplies!
- Home grown Luffa sponge, firm, straight as possible, undamaged, good size (15cm minimum length)
- Piece of wood, mine was something I had lying around and measures 20 x 12.5mm
- Saw, to cut your strip of wood to length
- Sander & Sandpaper in grit P60 and P120
- Drill and drill bits for wood in 3mm and 6mm
- Boiled linseed oil. You can use raw linseed oil but it takes a lot longer to dry (24h for boiled, 48h for raw)
- Cotton string, I used one from tesco, you’ll need about 2.5m. You could use culinary string or macrame cord too.
- Blunt crafting needle or tapestry needle for sowing. These needles are thicker and don’t have a sharp point that can get caught in your luffa. If you don’t have one and don’t want to buy one, you could use some sellotape at one end, just make sure you wrap tight and into a thin point so you can push it through the luffa fibers ( have not tried this with this project but think it can work!)
2
Prep the wood
- Measure the length of your wood. I did mine at 40cm. then cut it to the right length.
- Roughly sketch out where you want the holes for sewing* and the hole for the string loop to hang it up with.
*This is where I went wrong and made the holes on the wrong side of the wood for the sewing side of things.
3
Drill holes
Correct hole drilling should be through the sides. I used a 3mm drill bit for 8 holes that go all the way through. The holes are not in a perfect little line as by the time I drilled these I had sanded the whole thing already, making correct marking harder since there were no straight lines left to mark from/against – lesson learned!
*ignore the incorrect holes in the next few photos please
4
- Sand your handle to have soft rounded corners. You can really sculpt with a small handheld sander. I used grit paper P60 to sculpt and shape the rounded edges and the slightly thinner hole-y section so it would fit in my luffa. I then went over it all again with grit paper P120 to smooth things out.
- After sanding you’ll want to clean the wood and remove any sawdust. I used a damp piece of kitchen roll and then dried it off with a clean tea towel.
- Once fully dry you can get to the next step of oiling the handle
5
- Pour some oil in a little bowl/pot or in my case Gü pot, and use a little brush top apply. Really get into those holes cause once the luffa is sewn on you won’t be able to add more oil to it. We’re doing this step so the wood will last so much longer in the shower and bathroom.
- Ideally you’d do this step at least twice, as mentioned above, once the luffa is on, that’s it.
The right prep is key!
- You can massage the excess oil in with your hands or a clean, lint free cloth. If using your hands like I did, make sure to thoroughly wash your hands after. You don’t want to ingest any of this stuff.
- Any left over excess can be wiped off with some kitchen roll.
- Repeat all this an hour or 2-3 later
6
- While the oil is drying and sinking into the wood you can start braiding the hanging loop. I’ve braided my string with the idea that this will last longer (3 pieces of string vs just the 1) and because I think it looks nicer too.
- Cut 3 pieces of 30cm long and braid as much as possible. I used a clipboard to hold the strings in place and tied a little knot at both ends to save it from unravelling.
- I then found out that I had to undo those knots once I looped the braid through the allocated hole to retie them together into 1 single knot (keeping the two little knots would have made the last knot too thick and bulky and would shorten the loop too much too)
7
- Sew onto the wood through the drilled holes, using a crossed over and through method. I started at the bottom and worked my way up, then continued down again and finished it off with a good few knots.
8
- I then tied and tucked in the thinner top bit of the luffa and wove the left over string down to the existing knot and tied it off there.
9
- All that’s left to do now is use it out in the shower!
And there you have it! Your very own, home grown from seed, hand made Luffa Back Scrubber Sponge 😍
Good luck & have fun making yours and let me know how you get on? I’d love to know ♥️