Quilt and fabrics and old handwork have musty smell
 

I've dug up a good amount of 'saved' fabric, including some vintage linens and hand-embroidery I would love to put into a quilt, plus my first quilt, from the attic. Due to 18 years of being in a cold and somewhat dampish condition in the winters, they have gone quite smelly. there are no little black spots on them, and they are not molding like the leather good with white spots, but they have that stuffy attic smell.

I've washed them in cold water and stain-removing Shout and in regular soap. But when I open the clothes dryer to check on them, yuck! A musty odor comes out, and when dry they still smell musty - less than before, but still.

Now what? Should I just pitch them? Bleach? Lemon juice? Dry cleaning? Air and sun? No clue!

thanks for help!

I would try using white vinegar, it is known to kill mold spores.

Air and sun will work wonders. You can also seal them in a plastic bag with charcoal activated odor eliminators (like Dr. Shcolls Odor eaters for shoes) But I bet a day out on the clothes line will do it and today is a perfect day for it! Sunny and breezy in the Northeast.

Not an expert here but I have noticed on my adult son's work clothes (very dirty, stinky) that if I use cold water that the smells do not come out - so have learned to use either warm or hot water on his clothes - HTH

I've had luck with Borax and with something called Odoban.

Try some retro clean and soak in bathtub for a few days.

This is going to sound CRAZY but I really think this would work on a smaller scale. I am curious if some of the ingredients that are used for "safe animal deskunking" would work. I know the amounts would be way too much but worked miracles on our two dogs! This year about monthly they have decided they needed to become friendly with the black and whites) lol I KNOW fabric is different but I would be curious.... It has 1/4 c baking soda- 1 tsp dawn dish soap- 1 qrt hydrogen peroxide NO WATER. the ingredients are mixed that saturate with rubbing in and soaking about 15-25 minutes. Then and only then rinse out with warm water. and wash as normal. The ingredient that would concern me is the hydrogen peroxide. They say a 1:1:5 mixture with the hydrogen peroxide being the 5. It was amazing how it took the smell away from the dogs, (one of them got the brunt of it all ). I still think it would work on your fabric odors . It didn't seem to hurt the clothes I was wearing when I gave them their scrub downs.

I am a big fan of the borax! It is a wonderful product for cleaning most anything.

I am curious about the use of hydrogen peroxide. that is basically a kind of bleach, the sort of product we would put in our hair to go blonde (or sickly yellow...LOL!). Did your dogs get a 'dye job'?

Ammonia in the wash also works sometimes. If it were me, I would put in the sun for a couple hours and then rewash in ammonia with a vinegar final rinse.