Have you ever come into fabrics that smell of smoke? Recently 12 gorgeous fat quarter-sized scraps found their way to me sealed in quart-sized zip bags. When I opened the gift to admire the contents I was left with a sore throat after just three or four minutes of unsealing the bag. Whoa ~ strong stuff! Mr. IQ gets migraines from the smell of smoke, so it's not an option to have the smoke-scented fabrics around. What to do?
The good news: How I got rid of the odor:
I sealed them in the zip bags and sprinkled approximately one tablespoon of baking soda in each bag, then filled it with water to cover the tops of the fabrics. I then added a bit of 'odor eliminator' (Febreeze, for example, just unscrewed the top and poured in a bit) and zipped them up, agitated them (turned a few times, gently shook) to be sure the additions circulated around the fabrics and left them overnight. In the morning I opened the bags and poured out the yellow/tan water. I then filled the bags half way with fresh water and added enough white vinegar to cover the tops of the fabrics. In the afternoon I emptied the water/vinegar mixture out and squeezed the excess from the fabrics, then laundered them. The smelled great to me and they passed Mr. IQ's sniff test too.
Give this a try if you need to remove smoke smell from fabrics. Now I have lovely fat quarters to add to a scrap quilt or two.
~~Lisa
That is the main reason why I don't do any swaps, bees or round robins. Can't stand the smell of cig smoke.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip! Using donated fabrics, we sometimes have that problem - but we don't look a gift horse in the mouth, we just air them out!
ReplyDeleteGlad you were able to get rid of the smoke smell...
ReplyDeleteI had that problem with some books and furniture we inherited from my husband`s grandmother. Some of it ended up sitting out in the garage for over a year - its amazing what a year of fresh air will do. Others were scrubbed with baking soda - it worked wonders on the wood, although did take off some of the water based finishes (so they needed to be refinished)