I guess I'm giving my age away now but I can remember when the polyester 'miracle fabric' hit the market. My mom was over the moon - you didn't have to iron it. She ALWAYS looked for shirts and blouses for all of us in poly/cotton.
As she was the seamstress for the family she also looked for poly/cotton and 'double-knit' to sew all our clothes. Of course there were always scraps left over and when she needed to put quilt tops together, what better solid to buy than this miracle fabric (nobody knew any better at that point).
The quilt she made for our wedding was the culmination of the old cottons passed to her from DMIL, scraps from all the clothing she made for us kids and the solids she bought. After about 15-20 yrs of constant use I started seeing some of the fabrics coming apart and I would sit at the sewing machine and fix all the places only to have more come apart at the next washing.
Sadly it got to the point of no repair and is put away now but what struck me is that the fabric that completely 'dissolved' was the poly cotton and the old cottons from DMIL. The cottons from our childhood stood.
Sorry to be so lengthly about this - I'm not good at short stories. :oops: