I bought a house and moved a few weeks ago. The very last things that I took out of my apt. were my cutting mats. I put them in the trunk so they wouldn't be ruined by the other things I was hauling.

:oops: Great idea, but I forgot they were back there for a week or so. A week or so in the AZ heat, and they're warped, wrinkled, and otherwise ruined. I laid them on the patio hoping that the heat would make them flat again, but that didn't happen.

I liked my little Olfa and despised my large Fiskars.

How has the Olfa quality been lately? Have they managed to fix the problem that they were having with the Eau De Skunk scented mats, or is that still an issue?

Anything you'd suggest over the Olfa?

I am so sorry to hear about what happened to your mats! Heat is the enemy.

I have a REALLY BIG cutting mat that I bought at Jo-Ann's. It covers most of the top of my cutting table and I love it. I also have several Olfa mats and I have never had problem with an odor.

I am so sorry to hear that your mats got "melted"
I have a blue "Duraheal" mat that I have been using and it has worked great for me.
Got it at JoAnns with a 50%off coupon.

Has anyone used the Gingher mats? I never see anyone post about them, and my trip to Joann verified that they don't smell!!

I just learned that Gingher made rotary cutters - so I suppose it's logical that they would make mats.

I also would like to know how they are working out.

That happened to me the day I bought my mat. Left it in the car to do a little shopping. (CA sun) I read somewhere that you could reheat and flatten the mat again with very heavy books or boards. I have not had any luck with that.

I still have it and plan to cut the good part for a travel kit.

I love my Duraheal (pretty blue one). The other side is grey, so if you're cutting blue/blending in fabric, you can flip the mat over

On a sort of related note: I once bought deodorant, drove home, AZ sun, it melted. I didn't forget it in the car or anything... the drive was enough

My Duraheal has been through the wringer. We even use X-Acto blades on it. What a trooper!

How sad. I haven't had any problems with Olfa.

Hi,

I'm on my third Gingher mat, a 24 x 36 that I bought from Joann's last fall. That is, I bought one, but every time I used it, no matter which rotary cutter I used (different brands, even), and with different blades, it was leaving nasty cut marks on it and actually bringing up strings of mat material. I documented these issues by taking pictures of the problem mat and called Joann's. They sent out a new one in about a week to ten days. Same thing happened on mat #2. This time I emailed Gingher with my pictures.

The customer rep at Gingher was very nice, apologetic and mailed me out another mat straight from Gingher. It is doing well so far. All Gingher could figure out was that something must've gone wrong in that batch that I got my first two from. She said that was the first they had heard about it, too.

I like the light blue side the best, easier to see darker fabrics on, compared to my Olfa dark green mats. Don't care much for the khaki side, but then I don't cut a whole lot of light fabrics, either. These mats have a "Limited Lifetime Warranty", which basically says they will "repair, replace or provide you with an item of equal value" should yours become defective during the time you own it. Can't beat that.

They are spendy, but I got mine at 40 or 50% off and that really helped. Oh, the one thing I don't care for is that the marks on the outer perimeter for the eighths, fourths and half are all the same length. I'm used to them being all different lengths for quicker/easier recognition. This might not be a deterrent to some. Hope I've given you all some beneficial info here.

Happy sewing,

ETA: You're right, they DON'T smell, thank goodness!!

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.

I found that all the mats smelled to me, but I did a sniff test when I got them. I think they all give off a smell and how smelly they are when you get them depends on how long they have aged.
I didn't notice the smell in the store, it seemed the least smelly, but when I got home and put it in the confined space of my sewing area I did notice it. So I just put it in the garage for a while, and on a sunny day I put it on my deck, a good flat surgace. It did take a few weeks before it was totally gone, but no problem now.

I once left my Fiskars mat in the back seat of the car not thinking that when it got hot from the sun that it would droop over the seat but it did. I did everything that I was told to try to straighten it up but it would not flatten. I finally called the Fiskars company and after telling them the many things that I had tried to flatten it back out, they told me they would send me a new one at no charge. They did and I'm still using it 4 years later. Maybe you could try that if one of them was a Fiskars.

I have a similar story. I went to the grocery store, got home, and DH unloaded the car for me. After I had put everything away, I told him I knew I had bought a couple chickens. He went back out and looked again, then decided I must have left them in the grocery cart. (I have a tendency to do that if the sacker places anything on the bottom of the cart.) A few days later, I started smelling something. Searched the car from top to bottom, and found the chickens in the far back corner of the trunk. Luckily, they hadn't been smelling long enough to ruin the car.