Musty Fabric-What’s a Girl to Do?

52 responses to “Musty Fabric-What’s a Girl to Do?”

1. I have recently just tried placing the fabric in a plastic garbage bag with a bar of dial gold soap. Was told by a fellow quilter that this works. I haven’t opened the bags yet!

2. place in water with dissolved baking soda for an hour and then run thru the washing machine

   1. After that, hang them outside in the shade

3. I’ve had very good results using Arm & Hammer laundry soap. I put a little extra in and set the machine on prewash to give things a little more time to soak and then go to a normal wash. Fabrics came out smelling clean and fresh. These were a donation to our needlework group and the cardboard boxes had been stored in a damp cellar.

4. I have”inherited” fabric that was stored for years with dryer sheets. Any ideas on how to get that smell out?

5. Ooooo, congratulations on your upcoming wedding! How exciting!
   I’ve never had any issues with basement smell even tho that’s where my sewing room is located. We have a heavy duty dehumidifier and I’m thinking that has taken care of any issues, OR my friends have been so nice as to not tell me?😱
   My mom used vinegar and baking soda washed them with little water, then hung them out to dry. Then she washed them again and dried them outside. Very labor intensive for a woman with 9 kids!
   But now there are odor enzyme wash products that may help you. Good luck Faye!

   1. Oxiclean (read label, it doesnt require as much as you’d think) soak in warm water for 6 hours. Drain, if it smells good, wash as usual. If not, repeat and leave overnight.

6. Basically, washing will help a lot. I think there are detergents with Fabreeze, if not the fabric softener with Fabreeze would hekp. Since you’ve already washed some, go get your bottle of Fabreeze and spritz away! Works great! Before we had to soak in baking soda and water, before washing, but the Fabreeze is a wonderful product. Wish I had stick in the company!

   1. Fabreeze is full of chemicals and causes cancer..

7. Oxyclean additive to hot water wash gets all the mold & must out. Plus preshrinks the fabric if it’s never been washed.

   1. Oxyclean (or store brand) works pretty good. Like Beth S said above, it doesn’t take as much as one would think. And use caution on water temp … too warm or hot might cause dark fabrics to lose some of their color. I usually soak in a laundry tub or big bowl (glass or stainless steel) so as to concentrate the powder:water ratio, using just enough to keep the fabric submerged. Odor eliminator sprays work well, too. We bought a lightly used mattress but from a smoker’s house. Took it outside, sprayed it and left it outside in the sunshine to air out. Took a couple of treatments but odor is now gone.

8. For a musty cellar smell I bought a product that could also remove some bleeding on a quilt my mother gave me. The cellar flooded 1-2 inches. Of corse my mother had done some of her beautiful hand quilting on it. So I wanted to restore as good as I could. Plus the musty smell. Ugh. Then I found this product. I used it and also a handful of color catchers. The product is Restoration I got it on Amazon. Here is the product site address, if you would rather get it from the product site http://Www.englesideproducts.com

9. Hello Faye! It’s been fun to read your Mom’s blog. I really enjoy it! I have a similar problem with fabric. Had to store it in the basement. It got – THAT SMELL…. I found it was easiest to just wash in hot water with regular laundry soap and a cup full of Lysol, liquid cleaner. The one I use has a nice lemon smell. Nothing too overpowering (I have asthma) but it gets rid of that nasty smell. Then, when weather permits, I hang it outside in the sunshine to dry. Hope this help you as much as it has helped me! PS You are doing a bang up job while Mom is out with galavanting around Europe without you.

10. Covering up one smell with another doesn’t really solve the problem. Regular soap, vinegar rinse, maybe another plain water rinse and a little vinegar works for me. Hanging outside to dry is great as long as you keep the fabric out of the sun.

    Please be aware that heavily-scented laundry products (Febreeze, dryer sheets for example) can cause allergic reactions. And if you’re using the fabric for a baby quilt, bear in mind that the baby can’t tell you if the fabric is itchy!

11. I have put Febreeze for fabric in the wash and soaked it. Also, a product called odoban that my husband knew about. It worked well!
    Only after vinegar and baking soda didn’t work!!

12. Lysol makes a Laundry Sanitizer which takes out some things that might leave a smell. Worth a try. It leaves not scent of its own.

13. I’ve heard you can put it out on the grass and the chlorophyll will take out the odor. Haven’t tried it yet.

14. On another site several people said use vinegar to add to the water when you wash them

15. My sister was a smoker, we cleaned our her yarn. We ended up putting our in the sunshine for an afternoon. I know you risk fading, but it did the trick.

16. What a treasure and a beautiful assortment of colors and fabrics. It appears to me that Grandma was a very forward looking quilter! At a glance, the assortment looks as though the fabrics will go with vintage looking, traditional and modern quilts. Think of the endless projects beside regular quilts that you could make to spread “Granny” around to your large family! Vase quilts-Mom- mug rugs, etc. I’m sure that you get the idea.

    Mold, dust mites and the like are killed by cold. Extreme cold.
    Put the fabric in your freezer!
    I’m also putting more than 50 year old greeting cards in my freezer- I can’t bear to throw away those precious cards-
    hope the kids want them!

    PS If you live in Minnesota, you can put moldy smelling things outdoors (in a container) when it’s brutally cold here.
    Enjoy!

17. The people who take care of costumes on Broadway use vodka in a spray bottle. Don’t dilute the vodka, just use it full strength in a spray bottle. Plain vodka, not flavored.

18. Baking Soda in the wash. Long wash cycle, hot water. Biz bucket for whites.

19. Polly is absolutely right: put the moldy stuff in the freezer, it works like magic!
    Then you can wash and it’s good to go. 🙂
    I would add vinegar + few drops of essential oil (tea tree or eucalyptus or lemon) on the last wash, this will make sure mold will not return – it hates this kind of essencial oil.
    Good luck! 🙂

20. I love the picture, sitting on the porch lovingly looking at your fabric. I think u got some great responses for cleaning. I am going to try them with some of the fabric I brought home
    Teri

21. I have heard of leaving your bar-B-Q grill grates on the lawn to help clean them. Sounds like grass is a good cleaner. I think for the grill grates, you left them overnight to get the dew on them also.

22. I’m a longarm quilter and have a couple of customers that have the same issue. BUT they don’t know it! When they bring their quilts to me, I hang them on the clothesline for the day and am quite liberal with the Fabreeze Super Strength stuff. My family thinks I need to charge for the bottle of Fabreeze! Since you seem to have so many pieces I’d look for a couple of good sunshiny days and even leave them overnight. This has worked for me, good luck!

23. This has been so informative! Thank you for bringing it up the subject and all the interesting answers.

24. Tea Tree oil is amazing to remove bad smells. For example, it works great on dog bedding. And it took the strong perfume smell out of a quilt that was returned to me smelling like a candle. I put it in a bag with some paper towels sprinkled iwth tre tree oil sitting in a pocket of the bag and not touching the quilt.

    Tea Tree oil smells strong and herbally at first but unlike other essential oils, the funky green smell dissapates quickly.

    My current favorite is Bael Welness 3.4 oz I bought on Amazon.

    I would use Orvus Paste on fabrics. It contains no brighteners which damage the dyes.

    1. Hopping on again. Wow, lots of good advice, huh? I kind of forgot about the freezer – I heard that along the way, too. Now excuse me, I have to put a sticky not on my vodka bottle(s) to remind me to take them to my sewing space with me (heehee).

       1. vodka and water mixed 1/4th vodka to 3/4ths water makes a good starch alternative.

25. Unfortunately the fabric I was given to ‘de-must’ wound up in the garbage dumpster because I could not get the smell out. That was 20+ yrs ago, so there are new products on the market.

26. Ammonia, add a cupful along with your regular detergent and run with a pre-soak cycle. Use your favorite fabric softener.

27. Maybe if you let the fabric air out outdoors it would help?

28. I, for one, and reading a lot of very good advice here. I will make note of all of these ideas.
    I greatly dislike a musty smell. I even notice it from my very own upstairs closets and areas in my house that do not get good air circulation..
    I do not like covering smells with more smells, so I suggest the use of vinegar and baking soda. Hanging fabric outside is also a very good idea. I would do that first – before the washing and chemicals.
    What a treasure to have your gramma’s fabrics. They are so wonderful. I have my mom’s fabrics and also my oldest sister’s fabrics. It feels good to hug them.

    Another thought, the problem I have with chemicals and sprays is that if that is not rinsed out, then when you press the fabrics you could accumulate “residue” from the chemicals onto your iron. I can’t stand a dirty iron. Really, it makes me incredibly grumpy. So, whatever you use. be sure to rinse it out “really gooood” so you can iron it without creating another problem.
    I am very happy for you, for your upcoming wedding. Best wishes to you and your new hubb and new life. It will be very good. You will live happily ever after indeed.
    I am wondering how your mom, dad and brother just ran off to Italy instead of helping you with wedding details. This seems very very thoughtless and harsh 😂 hahaha just kidding. Best wishes while the cats are away!!

29. BioKleen is recommended to remove the musty smell by Blair Stocker in her book Wise Craft Quilts. She then washes the fabrics in Retro Clean.

30. Inheriting my mom’s stash was a blessing that brought a musty odor too. I hung dry fabric in the sunshine, wrong side out. Next I soaked in cold water in the washer overnight. Next I sent through the wash cycle w cold water and a half cup of vinegar. no detergent and then rinse cycles. Next I put them in the dryer….heated! They all turned out great. I figured if they could take all that, they were eligible to be made into a quilt ! Sunshine is a great helper.
    PS I have a question for Friday ! Any ideas on how to store tote bags? I have about 20 I use and they are all sizes…Some on hangers, on door knobs,,, all over.

31. I have had to deal with musty smelling fabric. The only way that I could get rid of the smell was to hang everything outside after I had washed it. The fresh air made all of the difference! Fresh air and sunshine even removed the musty smell from a box that stored a Featherweight sewing machine.

32. If you’re in Minnesota …
    Wait until winter. Wash and hang-dry it again. When VERY slightly dampthrow them out in the snow overnight on one of the coldest nights (always the clear nights). Deep cold takes a ton of smells out naturally. You could use your icebox in summer, but I prefer the snow.

33. Wash the fabric in any detergent that has enzymes like Persil. It works.

34. Congratulations on your upcoming wedding–may you share many years of joy and love!! I had lots of quilt blocks and pieces for quilts that my grandmother had begun, but did not complete before her death. I ,m used my mother’s tried and true laundry tactic of soaking items in an ammonia/water soak for an hour or so, and then washing with a good detergent (for sturdier fabrics). On my grandma’s more fragile fabrics, I used Orvus, and they came out beautifully. I made a number of lovely quilts from them. By the way, do you know that the Orvus product can be purchased at farm supply stores in a gallon size jar at a much cheaper price than at sewing and craft stores? It is also used in the livestock industry for animal cleansing and dairy equipment cleansing–a hint from a girl raised on a dairy farm!! You have lots of great hints to help with the musty fabric smells. Good luck.

35. How happy it makes me to think that you are investigating taking proper laundry precautions with your heirloom fabrics. During a visit to my husband’s grandparents family farm near Pickens, S.C., I was gifted with a cardboard box containing feed sacks from saved by my husband’s grandmother. The feed sack stitching had been removed and they had been laundered a very long time ago. During the Depression, my husband’s grandmother made clothes for her four daughters and her son out of feed sacks I was told by three of her daughters. One of her daughters was my husband’s mother who didn’t sew. Only one daughter wanted to learn to sew. One of my husband’s aunts, who was a very heavy smoker, gave me the feed sacks to take back to Arizona with me on the plane. Her home was not air conditioned and this area has high humidity in the summer so the feed sacks smelled of smoke as well as being quite musty.. I took them to my sister-in-laws home to be laundered immediately. I washed them twice using Tide. I dried them in her dryer. They looked bright and colorful and no longer smelled. It ise wonderful to have.such a memory of my husband’s grandmother whom I was lucky enough to have met on several occasions. I have soaked colored fabrics, antique laces and heirloom fabrics in Biz if items are stained for as long as several weeks even without damage to them. Then laundered the items. Voila, no stains. I have needlework from my mom, my grandmothers, and one great-grandmother and fabric from Mom. Good luck with your heirloom fabrics and memories. Let us know how you fare.
    Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! Much Happiness!

36. I have had a similar problem with musty fabric. I wash fabric in eucalyptus wool wash, and allow to dry naturally on the clothes line. Has worked every time.

37. I am extremely allergic to mold/mildew and had purchased a holiday fabric panel on sale with ‘the smell.’ I couldn’t even make the purchase myself, a friend did it for me because I break out in hives from the mold/mildew spores. It came home in her trunk rather than my SUV to avoid a trip to the ER. I immediately put it outside in strong sunlight, unwashed, wrong side facing the sun. After 6 hr I gave it the sniff and touch test..with no problems! Sunlight kills mold/mildew spores which cause ‘the smell!’ I then washed the panel in vinegar water in my washing machine. The smell never returned.
    I found it interesting to learn cold temps also work. I do know sunlight worked on our boat cushions caused by wet, humid conditions, furniture that had been stored in the basement, etc. Good luck to you!

38. Thanks for all the great suggestions!

39. Try washing it with febreeze. I had a quilt hanging in my office and the building caught on fire. Lucky my end of the building just suffered smoke damage. I took the quilt home and couldn’t breathe in the car because of the smoke. I washed it with soap, then murphy’s oil soap, then water and vinegar. Each one helped a little but the one the finally worked best was Febreeze.

40. Try soaking then washing with vinegar and some water.

41. ODOR BULLY – purchased at Menards. Gets the odors and mildew out!

42. I know it’s going to sound strange, but if you wash with pine sol in place of detergent, the smell will be gone.

43. I have an ionizer in my room and when I have something that smells ‘muf’ (= Dutch for musty) I put it in front of the ionizer. I also have a small ionizer, that I can put in a bag (with an extension cord) together with the musty items. This also works for things that can’t be laundered. See this Dutch site to get an idea: https://www.cleanair-online.nl/luchtreinigers/mg/39/ (luchtreiniger = air purifier)

44. Borax and white vinegar in a soak and then a wash with detergent. Borax kills mold and mildew spores. Works every time. You can dry them either on the line or the dryer. We wash dance costumes this way to remove bacteria from sweaty dancers!

    1. Great idea!!

45. You got so many responses and choices- could you try a couple and tell us what worked best?