My wife thinks I'm crazy, but I really love that new fabric smell. Maybe it's just a Moda thing and something they put into the finishing, but has anyone else noticed a distinctive scent with new fabrics? Anyone know what it is? I'm guessing sizing or starch or something. Maybe it's a pyschological thing where the brain equates the scent with getting new goodies? Am I alone in this? :D

you're not alone. it must be the treatment they put on the fabric.

my favorite smell is when you've be starching and ironing in the sewing room for a long time and the room just takes on that scent.

its just wonderful and uplifting.

You're not alone, you're just a quilter!
Sort of like when a chocolate addict smells chocolate!
I love the smell of new fabric.

:lol: I guess this means I am not a crazy as my sons think I am ! LOL I will join your club also . i just love the smell of new fabric and I love to touch it 8)
Sharon

I work with a lady who use to run a fabric store. She told me companies are using embalming fluid in the fabric now. She said if people knew this they would stop buying fabric. Don't know how true this is.

I Love the new fabric smell almost as much as a newborn baby smell :wink: 8) 8) 8)

Nope, you're not crazy!!!

Your not alone at all. I even love the smell of new magazines.....

As long as we don't have to do meetings, stand up and swear off it, I'll join the club of the new fabric smell lovers. Having that AND the ironed startch smell is just the best in the world. Not Quite as good as fresh bathed, lotioned, and clean baby, but closer than anything else in the world.


Having recently experienced the smell of embalming fluid........it's NOT that smell. They do use a sizing on it but it's not embalming fluid.

OK, gotta go to fabric store now, my day will be ruined without a new fq, yard or two, or maybe...............

Hugs,
Sharon

I love the way my sewing room smells when I bring home new fabric. Hard to describe. I also like the smell after using starch and ironing.

I LOVE snorting that new fabric smell!
I cannot get enough of it!
Ok, I'll even go as far as letting out this other secret.....when someone sends me squishys, I snort on that too!
Just gotta smell, sniff, snort it! Oh yea, can't forget the fondling and petting either!

I think your all crazy! LMAO! :lol:

LOL! Wanna hear another side to this story?

I buy a lot of resale fabric and vintage sheets- I ALWAYS smell them first and a couple times I almost threw up the smell was so bad. Now I take a couple whiffs from far away before plunging my nose into the fabric.

You don't find that problem with the new stuff... maybe my cheap finds are the crack to you guys's cocaine. LOL!

I love that new fabric smell and feel too, It pains me to prewash fabrics, but I have found from experience the hard way and it is a necessary evil. But until I throw my newly purchased fabrics in the wash, I linger over them as long as I can.

Sew now your telling me that it is the smell that helps them follow me home! I thought it was just the color, texture, and patterns that made them so irresitable! I must go test this today! :lol:

The smell you are all raving about is formaldehyde, used as a finish to prevent winkles, deter insects, and stop mildew. It is used extensively in the textile industry and is a known hazard. http://www.nycosh.org/workplace_hazards/formal.html

I am not sure they are using the same treatments as they used to. When I was younger, I would get a raging headache when ever I went into a Hancock's. It doesn't seem to bother me now.
I just went to a local fabric shop that also does quilts and I found a pattern I was looking for, and of course some unsuspecting fabrics, that I really didn't need had to come home with me as well. The demos are all tomorrow, so I will just HAVE to go back! :?

I think its the cheaper material they use formaldehyde in, it holds the fabric together as the threadcount is less.

I must get my fix....need more new fabric.........

Oh yes--it's right up there with horses on a sunny day, straw, a barn full of hay, shavings, and Crayola crayons!

Oh my goodness, could this be a marketing ploy? Like the bread or cookie smell in the grocery store? Are we sunk for sure? Afraid to go to the LQS because we might spend the whole month's salary?

It's therapy to go into my sewing room and pet/smell the fabric. (When I am grumpy, DH will actually send me to my room to do just that. lol)

You get sent to your room too?
I get sent to mine often. I'll put up a little whine...No, NOT the room! Please, PLEASE! SEND ME! lol

Can you imagine Yankee Candle coming out with that fragrance? They have a ton already and my NEW favorite is Dune Grass.
I think if they were to make one....New Fabric....it would be a hit and ALL sewers/quilters would buy all they made lol

I pour my wine, lol and no, I don't put up a fuss either.

never noticed a smell, I'm off to check it out!

it's the new fabric smell that sends my asthma to the next level. Wash everything when it comes in the house. can't spend too much time in the fabric stores or I'm a coughing.

The smell doesn't get me as much as the feel of new fabric - that I'd have to go to meetings for! I just love the feel of a new batch of fabric :lol: :lol:

I am a touchy feely type of gal too! A real fabric fondler!!! I am so bad about it I might end up being the first "Registered Fabric Fondler Offender" :lol: :lol: !! Try saying that 3 times! :D

Me, too. An addicted fabric-a-holic. NOTHING compares to daydreaming in a fabric store for a few hours.

I don't mind washing it, though, because then I get to starch and iron and pet the fresh clean fabric, and that is cool, too. My DH thinks I am absolutely nuts.

But then, I remind him how he is about cars and motorcycles, and he shuts up.

I know just what you mean. I love that smell. Makes me happy all over. :D

I like all the different fabric, food, flower etc. smells I'm just delighted that my smeller still works!

I love the smell of new fabrics too! And also when you open a new bag of Hershey's Kisses, just yum! I think I can add a pound just by smelling that candy. Another favorite is the smell of a new box of crayons, wonderful childhood memories come back, my grandmother's kitchen table and a sheet of drawing paper.

NO, you are not alone. I also love that smell and when I smell it it always brings a smile to my face I have noticed recently.

Good Grief !!! Can this be true? I wonder why they would use that.What is in that stuff anyway?

My name is Joanne, and I'm a fabriholic.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

You're all nuts!!!!

BTW - me too!!! DH thinks I'm stark staring bonkers and if I find a fabric shop on our travels he just rolls his eyes and goes to wait outside! :shock: :D

Somewhere i read about all the chemicals...not good...my sewing room smells strong of this, if its closed tight...even in the winter 'i crack the window...to air it out....I have inviremental allergies...this is from man made chemial allergies. I probably should wash it all..but i just don't have the time, and i hate ironing..press a seam yes iron yardor 2 no lol

Read this artricle...its real yuck
http://www.coopamerica.org/programs/...abricSmell.cfm

I also love the smell of new fabric. It's rite up there with the smell of new leather shoes. These smells bring back so many good memories like getting ready to go back to school in the fall :D :D also the smell of fresh ironing, fresh bread and home made chicken soup. Smells bring back memories faster and more vividly than any thing else. I will also admit being a fabrihalic, but I refuse to take the pledge. My family has threatened me with an intervention and an exorcism but I'm holding my ground. I tell them that if I didn't have this one vice I would be perfect and that wouldn't be good. :!: :!: :!:

Oh --- I love the 'I would be perfect' comment!

I just love the new fabric smell also. You could take me blindfolded into a quilt shop and I'd know what kind of shop we were in! It ranks right up there with the "new car" smell and it's not nearly as expensive!