Making laundry liquid

It's been a productive weekend here so far. Yesterday, I built a new garden bed just in front of the concrete of the front verandah. I have added some nice tropical style plants to deal with the heat, and to give that nice lush, tropical look. I took a lot of plants from the other house last weekend, as the garden down there needed a tidy up and a thin out, so I only purchased 3 plants all up. I will try and take a photo when the light is better, as the sun is beating down on it at the minute, which isn't great for photographing. I'm also trying to get through the sundry bits and pieces that needed washing, the things that you need to wait until you get a few of, to warrant running a load through the washing machine, towels, mats, table runners etc. Of course, I ran out of soap powder, and didn't feel like driving down the track to go to the shops, so thought I would finally try my hand at making liquid soap. I made soap powder a few months back, but I think that's quite expensive to make, so I'll see how this pans out.
Firstly, I grated up a cup of soap from a Sunlight bar of soap, which ended up being about 2/3 of a bar. I added this to 1 1/2 litres of water,

 and stirred over a medium heat, until it was completely dissolved.

It was completely dissolved, with absolutely no grainy bits of soap left, and a nice clear liquid. I then added 1/2 cup of borax and 1/2 cup lectric/washing soda  to the mix, and stirred until it thickened, which was pretty quick, only a minute or 2.

I then poured this mix in to a bucket, and filled the bucket up with water. I then stirred this mixture to combine it.

I left it to thicken up, but the mix was quite lumpy, so I used my old hand beater to beat it up in to a nice smooth mix.

Once nicely thickened and smooth, I poured it in to an old 3 litre milk bottle, leaving room at the top to shake it before use, and the rest got put in to lidded ice cream containers for storage. It made about 8 litres all up. You use 1/4 - 1/2 cup each load, and for any stains, rub it in to the stain before washing. I'll report back with how well or unwell it does the job.