I feel for you.. but have no advice.

However! I do have a hot car story... We went to the wharf in my car to get lobsters for Canada Day. Cheaper here but still a luxury! Bought 14, dropped two off at our carpenter's house ( we were renovating) and came home to find that there were only 11 in the bag. Counted and recounted... OH well maybe it was a mistake at the wharf and we only got 13. Enjoyed the lobsters. Went away for a little vacation in DH's car. Two long hot weeks later we hired a local teen to clean out and wash our cars. He knocked on the door a few minutes into the job... "What do you want me to do with the dead lobster that's in the trunk of your car?"

Stinky cutting mats had nothing on this smell! I am hoping the ravages of winter will eventually DEADEN the odor!

:lol: :lol: :lol: Too, too funny!


I have a June Taylor mat that I have had for 12 years and i love it. the lines are almost gone and I need to get a new one. this one has the ironing side also. I also have a larger one, a Fiscars, that is 35" by 20" that works fine,but love the small one that I use. If i ever see another June Taylor , that is what I will get.

I had a hot car incident with one of my mats, too. I figured nothing ventured, nothing gained and ironed it. :roll: It straightened it out quite a lot and I now use it as a sort of spare. :cry: I know many people have had the same experience so maybe someone else has a good idea. I like my Olfa mats, too. :wink:

This reminds me of the time when I was going on a weekend retreat (not the quilting kind :cry: but needed to finish the binding on a quilt - so I took my sewing machine, cutting mat, etc. A well meaning friend stuck the mat in her trunk with all our other stuff - thinking she'd known to put it on the bottom so it'd lay flat I did not check to see (FL sun/heat) - - - should've - had to go buy a new one when we got home - never told her I couldn't get it straightened out...

Sorry about your mat. I hope you get another you really like. I got mine at Walmart and really like it

Yes, my mats smell, especially when I move them. I have also notice the skunky smell with other plastic type items such as bath mats and shower heads. When new these can smell. You would think the manufacturers would wise up. :shock: Right!? :mrgreen:

I've had a hot mat experience too. Florida summer sun, the worst!! I bought the big one at Joann's one fine, HOT day, with a coupon of course. Stopped to get gas, the mat was flat in the trunk. Got home, the mat had buckled in so many places I gave up counting. I've tried putting it out on the tile next to the pool in the hottest sun. Nothing! If possible MORE bumps. I then put a towel over it and loaded it with my heaviest books, this was recommended by a quilting friend. NOTHING! Then I ironed it, first placing a towel over it. It didn't work. What should I do with it now? All those bucks, down the drain. I'm upset too, just as you must be.

Short answer: no.

Long answer: I bought a large Olfa mat two months ago, and brought it into the house, leaving it on the dining room table. A couple of hours later, my husband and I are watching TV, and I keep smelling this awful chemical smell. It seriously smelled like electrical wires burning -- we kept walking around the middle of our house, sniffing around trying to figure out what smelled so bad, and we were positive that we had wires burning somewhere. My husband was actually on the phone with our electrician explaining the smell and was asking him to come over when I finally thought to sniff the mat -- it smelled awful! It had completely stunk up most of our house. We felt like idiots once we explained to the electrician what the issue was, but he was nice about it :) I keep the mat in the garage when I'm not using it -- it still smells fairly strongly.

I actually had this happen to me (yes I was the dumb one that left it in the car).
I put the mat on my ironing board with a heavy towel on top and with a steam iron was able to steam it flat again. I then left it flat on my cutting table for a day to make sure that it had really dried and I was able to save it! Give it a try.

I read somewhere that if you wet a towel and iron it with steam, it will flatten out. I haven't tried it...but you don't have a lot to lose. Hope it helps.