need an anti-static miracle cure for cotton fabric!
 

My sister recently asked me to sew together, and then hem, a large piece of quilting cotton to make a table cloth for her sales table at several upcoming craft shows. (She makes some really marvelous glass items with a flaming torch.)

She pre-washed it, and dried it, and I sewed as directed. All is well there, but it's debut at her first craft show today was marred by an astonishing amount of fuzz and threads (and downright lint) accumulating on the front section where people were brushing against it as they looked at her items.

Some of it was identifiable as yarn fuzz from a nearby table selling hand spun yarn. But the rest of it was just stuff leaping off of the crowd, and embedding itself in her table cloth! We are thinking that the cloth is overly prone to static somehow. She had to walk around the front of the table and pick it clean several times!

Is there a trick to prevent this? Fabric softener? Isn't there an anti-static spray available? I seem to have some memory of something like that, but does it really work? Ideally something with out a strong smell, as she is sensitive to such things.

Any suggestions will be mightily appreciated!

Fabric softener is the only thing I can think of. I imagine it will take a few washings to be effective. I am curious to know if you can purchase unscented fabric softener. I have never thought about it.

There is also an anti-static spray. Don't know if it is unscented though. I thought there is an unscented fabric softener out there.

You can purchase unscented fabric softener, that is what I use.

Annababy I am allergic to scented fabric softeners so there are unscented ones out there

A little of that fabric softener mixed with water and put in a spray bottle makes a very effective static spray.

I was thinking of the Static Cling spray.

A lint roller would come in handy.

I remember there was a spray we used to use on our slips (giving away my age) to keep the dress or skirt from clinging when we walked. Don't remember the name, sorry. If her craft show continues tomorrow, perhaps she could rub the front part of her display with a softener sheet. It might help. Ann

You can buy Static Guard in a spray. I use it to give a light spray to my hairbrush (best tip ever), car door handles, on my Go dies, anywhere I don't want static. It's unscented I guess, I've never smelled any scent from it.