I made a couple of the bags last week & I did wash them before I used one. There is finishing on the material so that is why the instructions said to was them before use. My potato came out just fine & the bag did smell like wet material after but it did great. So last night I made 9 more for the girls in my family for christmas which I will either wash for them or make sure they know to do it before use. I think they are a cute but maybe useless because most of us do just wrap them in a towel or something . When I made the first ones I showed them to my husband & he said WHY?