our fabric - what has been done to it and where has it been?
 

This thread is a spin- off from the cats in a fabric store thread.

I do not know all the processes and travels that cotton bolls go through before they become fabric on my cutting table.

If anyone does, please comment on this thread.

I am suspecting some of the phases would have interested OSHA and EPA. - which might explain why so many fabrics are printed outside the U SA

why alarm everyone? ;-)

In some cases, "ignorance is bliss" . :DI know after I watched on TV what could be in food spices, I make sure to cook them well.

This post scares me a little! LOL

I know when I first handle the fabric I get a very dry throat. Makes me wonder what's in it. Sue

To my understanding from classes many years ago, fabric is made outside the USA because the wash off from the process is not monitored as tight as it is here. We don't pollute our grounds and waters as other countries are allowed to.

All the more reason to prewash your fabrics and if you choose not to, then wash the finished product before gifting.

I purchased fabric from USA and UK customs would not allow it through and sent it back. I wonder what was in it they didn't like?

.............and no doubt the point that BearIsGray is trying to make

that was my guess ;-)

good question, Dotty, though I doubt it had anything to do with manufacturing.

Some time ago I posted a link on here to a film that showed how Batiks were made - it was pulled by the moderator for some reason. Anyway, it showed little men in the water with the bolts of fabric - rinsing them, I think. The water was up to the bottom of the shorts of the men. Always wash your batiks!

I do wash everything that iis washable before cutting it - but that was not the purpose of the this post. I

Or check to see if it has been washed. I see no purpose in rewashing an item I boughtt at a garage sale if everything else there seems fairly clean

For the record, I do want something that I have purchased as "new" to at least look " new."

I really do wonder what all the processes are - and iif we did, would we be so squeanish about a little cat hair or a bit of sticky finger residue on " new" items.

you got that right ;-) the world is not clean.

And eventually this does come around to bite us! Ocean currents and air currents eventually distrubute slmost everything.

I can comment specifically on Batiks... there is no way they can be produced here in the US. The processes is anything but environmentally friendly... and OSHA would have a field day with the issues on safety and hazardous working conditions. If you saw and smelled the environment you would never use a batik without washing.

Does anyone else remember going into a fabric store as a child and having your eyes water? I don't know what they used then or what they use now but thank goodness, that no longer happens.

If I could buy American made fabric, I would even if it costs more. Unfortunately, fabric companies can make more money by mfg overseas.

I've noticed all young children's eyes water or turn red in a fabric store. As you age you get more immune to the fumes. I would never take an infant to a fabric store that had aisles of all different type of fabrics. And seeing babies in strollers in clothing stores right up to eye level with the clothes racks makes me so upset. All new fabric has very strong chemical fumes. Most adults usually don't have any reaction from them and don't think about the infant. I know better then to say anything to the clueless parent though.

I know there's stuff in the fabric. I wash my hands after handling any that isn't prewashed.

eta: my kids all went to the fabric stores with me all the time when they were little. They even touched fabric. They never got red or watery eyes-even my sensitive child didn't. Now she sews and never has trouble even though most of what she sews with is not prewashed.

My kids went everywhere I went when they were babies. I didn't leave them with anyone but their dad. Don't assume I'm a clueless parent because of it.

I do know this for a fact that all fabric imported into the USA has to be treated with formaldehyde either in granular or gas form at the port of entry. I read the MSDS -Material Safety Data Sheets- at the store where I worked.
This is why you should always wash your fabric when you get it home so you have less exposure to it yourself, while handling it.
By the way this also includes all clothing, towels, wash cloths,sheets any thing made with fabric and imported. It makes you think twice.

I don't wash my fabric unless I think it'll bleed and I still won't even after reading this. Almost everything we buy has chemicals in it. I am allergic to so many things. As a child, I went into an alfalfa field and my eyes swelled shut and ran and my nose wouldn't quit running for two days. Now I can touch alfalfa plants and nothing happens.

My dad purchased an expensive machine to clean the air and put it in my bedroom when I was a child. I use 3 nose sprays a day because of allergies now, but with that help, I can be around cats or anything. I have the worst runny nose; it runs constantly and I own over 100 handkerchiefs because of it. Walmart is the worst for me, but I can go in there now. Before the nose sprays, my husband could find me in any store -- he'd just listen for sniffling and there I'd be. I have never had a problem with fabric -- with or without nose spray -- ever! I could live in a quilt shop and not be bothered without nose spray.

My baby never gets red or watery eyes and she touches all the fabric, she loves fabric I think more than me

Which is better? To know how something is made and learn all the icky things that may have been done or processed in it? or, To be ignorantly happy with the end product?

Sometimes our sensibilities get the best of us only because of the thought of something.

If we knew how our food was made most of it would rot on the shelf. If we knew what was done to keep things safe we wouldn't use them. Most all things we use today have been treated and/or modified to make them no longer toxic or dangerous.

I personally prefer to remain happily ignorant about a lot of things.

I know that cotton is a plant and the white puffy part has seeds in it. People used to pick the cotton bolls into big sacks - I think there is a macine that harvests the bolls nos. I don. ' t at what point the seeds are picked out. Wonder if any pesticides o herbicides are used on the plsnts during the growing season.and if so, how much residual is on the harvested cotton.


Somehow those fibers need too be spun into threads, and those threads are knitted or woven into cloth. Then the dying processes - I have no idea what chemicals are needed for the different colors. Then any finished that might be done/added.

And then getting it from place to place - and where it is warehoused.

And to think allthat was done " at home " not so long ago

I f anyone really wants to know there are a ton of articles you can check out from Google. I didn't site any particular one but easy enough to find out.

I wrote on here before how bad some of the places where the fabric is made and stored in the Far East was. Having lived there while my DH was stationed there I got to see first hand how dirty it was. That was in the 60's so it may have changed now That is why I wash everything before using it. The thing in the fabrics that brings tears is what it has to be packed with it to keep mold out. We had to hang bags of it in our closets or mold would grow all over. I hated that smell and knew what it was the first time I went into a fabric store and smelled it.

I think it all has to do with the cost of escalating labor cost is why so many jobs have been shipped overseas.

This is actually the first really relevant response to my original post.

since so few people have missed the point and since i can see where this is going, i'm going to close it now.
then i'm going to wash down my hot dog with a diet soda before rolling around in my unwashed fabrics.

see you in the ER. LOL LOL LOL