I recently purchased some gorgeous vintage fabric. I didn't notice an odor with it (not that I go around sniffing fabric, but...) until I went to wash it. I started with a hand wash and the water was filthy, sort of a brown-yellow. The water was still coming up pretty filthy after a couple of soaks. Because of the color of the fabric, I was having a hard time telling whether it was dirt or dye coming off. And I noticed an odor, I can't quite place it. Not really mustiness (I've bought a lot of vintage fabric so I'm used to that) but just like dirt and maybe smoke. The fabric was holding up well in the water so I even put it through a gentle cycle in the washing machine. I used a color catcher and that came out spotless. Still smells, and seems to irritate my throat some. So I need to decide what to try next. I've heard about vinegar but I'm not sure what proportions to use, etc. I just really want to get the fabric to a useable state because I love it! (You can't really tell because of the lighting in the picture but it's black with some nice deep purples and hot pink).
Second question is about it's age...it has a thin layer of felt/flannel along the back as you can see from the picture. It apparently was manufactured like that and was not sewn on. I've never seen that before and I wonder if anyone knows anything about that. The fabric width is 26 inches so that most likely makes it older but I'm just curious. Thanks!
