Many years ago our college theatre director wanted rag costumes for the villagers in THE TEAHOUSE OF THE AUGUST MOON. He was given a large stack of burlap bags, which he thought could be cut up and sewn into pants and box jackets easily. We took four bags and made one outfit. The fabric looked good, but they were terribly itchy and smelled bad. My future wife and I took the sample and the rest of the bags to a local washateria and did them all at one time in several machines. We used mountains of powdered laundry detergent and lots of fabric softener. The filters clogged, the drain hoses clogged, the dryer filters clogged: it was horrible!! Had it not been for an owner/manager who really supported the theatre department, we would have really been in a mess -- figuratively and literally. What can I say? The production looked fantastic, but both of us swore never to have anything to do with burlap bags again.