One of my friends is a person I consider a thrifting genius. She can and does find amazing and cheap things at thrift stores with alarming frequency, which always inspires me. It does not always work quite so well for me, however.
A few months back, I found a fabulous, practically new denim curtain for amazingly cheap and it was in fabulous shape. I bought it for a couple bucks and it was the backing for two baby jean quilts I made. Fab. Look at me, thrifting, quilting, booyah.
And then there was my recent experience…
I found this quilt top in my stash. I had sewn the top all together about two years ago, folded it up, and forgot about it. Since I’m on this finishing things kick and since I went through my sewing stash, I relocated this mostly done jean quilt and decided to finish it. Enter another thrift store denim curtain find. Gold. As always, I threw it in the wash when I got home and had it clean, folded, and ready.
So I get the quilt top out, hack some batting out of an old blanket that has just been sitting in the linen closet, and cut the back out of this curtain. I hadn’t noticed when I purchased it the extent of the sun bleaching on the fabric. Hmmm. I nearly ditched it, but being cheap and having it on hand, and the fact that it is a jean blanket- meant to be used and abused indoors and out, I decided the sun bleaching would be acceptable, I put it all together, clipped the threads, and surveyed the quilt. Far from perfect, but not bad.
And then, as I folded it up, I caught a whiff of something strange. A smell. An unknown smell, no less. Is it my quilt??? I stick my face into the newly finished quilt I’d been so happy with moments before and panicked! Did I sew a thrift store find into this quilt without smelling it first??? Am I really so cheap I’ve thrown all caution to the wind? Gasp! I should know better than that!! In fact, how did I miss the smell? I’ve been handling the fabric to sew it?!? (I’m still trying to figure out the answer to this one- maybe it was while I had a cold a few weeks back). For anyone who has darkroom experience, it reminded me of the smell of developer, not entirely unpleasant, just kind of strange and chemically.
Maybe it was the blanket. It was an older blanket, well used… I quickly go smell the remaining blanket scraps… nope. The remaining blanket pieces smell good as new. It is that darn thrift store $4 denim curtain!! Ahhhh. Did I just ruin a perfectly good quilt top because I didn’t think to smell the darn thing?
So I tried several solutions:
- Soak the quilt overnight with water and detergent. Dry it. Sniff it. Still there. Panic a bit about the wasted quilt top. Refuse to be mastered by a bad thrift store smell.
- Soak the quilt overnight in borax and water. Wash it. Dry it. Sniff it. Still there. Panic a bit more about the wasted quilt top. Refuse to be mastered by a bad thrift store smell when I haven’t exhausted all options. Google how to remove bad smells from laundry.
- Soak the quilt overnight in water and vinegar (3x as much vinegar as anyone on the internet recommended). Wash it. Dry it Sniff it. Still there… faintly, but still there. Consider my options. More vinegar soaking? Give it up and cut the back and front of the quilt apart? Start all over again?
- So I hung it on the line in the sun for 3 days…
… and the smell is finally gone. Thank God!
Suffice it to say, I will never again use a thrift store find without first making sure the smell is gone… BEFORE the sewing into a project.
And now to get the smell out of the remains of that curtain that I sewed into a reusable shopping bag…
What about you? Do you have any Thrifting Regrets?
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