@lacemaker3 wrote:
@mistwomandancing wrote:
retrose1 wrote:..........I have never seen anything do a better job than just nothing but a warm dryer and some tumbling. And after having dug through some really nasty closets in my quest for vintage clothing, I have seen a lot.
Will this method work for "dry old attic smell" ?? Once in a great while an auction around here will have some really old clothing items from late 1800's / early 1900's, almost always having been stored in old trunks in the 3rd level big attics of those big old early homes.
I'd be afraid damp jeans might even be too rough against some of the fine fragile fabrics, so I always put inside a pillow case, but would love to hear whether you think the attic smell can be cured this way too. Thanks.
None of these techniques are appropriate for older fabrics or anything valuable. They can damage anything much older than the 1970's, but I wouldn't risk anything from the 20th century, because even the 1990s are 20 years old now, or nearly. Older fabrics from before the mid-20th century can be very fragile, and may be damaged by sunlight, or dry-cleaning, or fluffing in the dryer.
I wish people would stop using or recommending dryer sheets. They smell disgusting, and the cheap fragrance is extremely allergenic. Nobody who has ever seen or known someone with a bad allergy should ever use or recommend dryer sheets.
Spraying an item with rubbing alcohol will kill mold. And the smell gets absorbed into the alcohol and then evaporates and disappears. I learned that from a friend who is a pediatrician. He used to spray down sweaty sports equipment as soon as it was taken off. It kept it from getting musty or nasty from the sweat. If the mold spores are old (and inactive) then it's too much and nothing will get the spores out, but if the item is treated quickly enough, rubbing alcohol will prevent the mold/mustiness from taking hold. Some one who is allergic to mold will react even to the old, inactive spores that cause "musty" smell.
I've heard that vodka also works, but it should be cheap vodka, completely tasteless because if it has a tase then it also has a smell, and the smell will stay on the clothes. {What a waste.}
While I agree about the dryer sheets, they are a huge waste of money to me and feel slimy, I have dealt with maybe a couple hundred thousand pieces of vintage clothing in the almost 40 years of buying, selling and dealing it and I have lost or destroyed maybe 50 items. Almost all of the cottons and polys are run through the washer and the wools are run through the dryer.
The dryer does nothing more than beat a few fibers off the garment, lint trap always needs to be emptied at my house. Sunshine is bad, but most cottons or wools have to be out in the sun for days continuously before the fabric actually deteriorates to the point it's destroyed, the print faded yes, but the material will hold up. One thing I destroyed in the washer was a couple of panels of bark cloth curtains that had been hanging since the 50s and looked pretty good but broke down into strips when the wash was done.
To me and most of my buyers, anything from the Jackie 60s up should be wearable and if the garment can't go in the washer if it is washable, it is useless. Garment fabrics from the 30s up to the 50s are tested before they are cleaned, but most of the cotton and rayon washable clothes are still washable. But you have to be careful about dyes running. 20s and before are treated with more care and stress testing, but still I have found the cottons from back in the day to be washable.
(*Bleep*)
