Just curious, what were your alergy symtoms?[/quote]

I have a rash on both hands that has been hanging around for a few months now. Sometimes it goes pretty dormant, but is still there, just not so visible. All of my fingertips have very dry skin on them and crack if I am not on top of it all the time. I can usually keep the cracking down to a minimum, but the dryness looks like tiny little razor cuts and the skin flakes off. It's disgusting to me cause my fingers feel like sandpaper. I always thought that was from back when I was a kid and used to do woodworking with my dad. After we stained the wood, we always would wash our hands with gas (didn't know any better and it worked)! The doctor says that is when it started with the sensitivity. It's taken just over 30 years to figure this out! I have already told my dad and sis as they suffer from it the same as me.
The way I found out was they were trying to treat the rash on my hands and another rash and creams weren't working. So they decided to do a patch test.
I know that unfortunately that particular formaldehyde is in many things, never had any other problems than just the hands. But, will do what I can to keep it to a dull roar. I have been washing and pressing and folding fabric all day! Completed just over 40 yards today between a bit of yardage and fatquarters!
Thanks for the suggestions!

I have had this problem for years. I wash it all. Just clip the corners.

I don't know why everyone keeps saying to clip the corners. I've tried it and not seen any appreciable difference. Maybe I'm not clipping enough? I just usually wash on delicate. On really thin/shreddy type fabric I will run a quick straight stitch down the raw edge. I do have a serger but never have had the need to use it on yardage unless it was handwoven.

I also get a rash. Another disguised form of formaldehyde is formalin (that is the latest/greatest stuff used to preserve biological specimens these days. I react to it too). You will probably find you react more to ant bites as well. The venom from an ant is formic acid (the basic component in formaldehyde). Benedryl and an epipen are great friends (we have a lot of fire ants).

I'm allergic to it too. There was a shop in town years ago that I couldn't shop because I would start sneezing like crazy. Thot I was the only one.

Thanks for the info. Now I know why I react so badly to ant bites. I keep Benedryl handy too.

My mother told me when I first started quilting that cotton pulls the oils out of your skin and she keeps a little bottle of hand lotion on her table (as I now do). When she comes back to her sewing table or when she has been working on a quilt for a period of time, she stops, puts on a little hand lotion and rubs it in, stretches her back, legs and arms, and goes back to her quilt! So I have a bottle of hand lotion (you know the kind - the free bottles you get at a motel. I have even asked some of the maids if I could have a few extra bottles of hand lotion. I explained why - "I didn't know that and I quilt". So she throws me in a few extra bottles - I love Bath and Body lotions). Mine get particularly dry in the Minnesota winters, so for what it is worth.........

I use my solar dryer all the time - not only for fabric!!!! Clothes work on that too!!!!!!

Another thought - our son had allergies (a whole mess of them) and he had shots for them. Will you be having shots for this allergy and then will that not help you or is the super washing an alternative. Gary didn't have an alternative. Just wondering. Edie

Oh my gosh I had never thought about this but it make awesome sense, mine is even in black garbage bags inside the plastic totes. Also one of my DGD was really sensitive and would break out from fabric/clothes and I started washing everything of hers in Dreft and all her sensitvity went away. I know it is kind of expensive but I keep a bottle of it just for fabric and towels and I find it is the only thing that takes the smell of perfume and scented soaps out of the towels.

If you do wash before sewing the edges, save the threads and when you have enough, make something with them. Arrange a pattern and put netting over them and quilt them down. Add buttons, lace or what ever. Cotton has always been known to wrinkle no matter how you wash or dry. I don't iron till needed and then I use magic sizing, roll them up and put in a baggie for a day for the moisture to spread. Good Luck!

I always wondered what it was that makes me sneeze like crazy and get a roaring headache any time I go in a fabric store. Now I know. I knew it was the fabrics but didn't know what was on it. Yuck! one thing I use to cut the edges that no one has mentioned is the zig zag blade on the rotary cutter. Saves my hands big time. But most times I forget to do anything and just throw it in the washer on gentle and shake it out, pull off big lumps of thread and toss it in the dryer. I wish we had a solar dryer here sometimes I would love it. I also don't iron until I am ready to use it even though I just made a big ironing board top. I don't use big lengths of fabric lately just small pieces so its easier.

To attack the wrinkles without using starch I use a little white vinegar in filtered water, put it in a spray bottle. The vinegar evaporates and the smell goes away. Do not like to store fabric with starch in it but do like to get some wrinkles out.