What was in it?
 

I started soaking unwashed fabrics in buckets, pans, or bowls before washing them.

Sometimes I wonder what came out of the fabrics when I look at the water. I'm not talking about dye that has been released.

might be kerosene ... once bought a knock-off Cabbage Patch doll that stank so bad, I could never use it!

It may be the chemical they put in to keep mold and mildew out while storing and shipping.

Yikes! I guess I never thought about it until now.

Yes, it can be amazing. The color of the water can be something completely different from the color of the fabric.

Lots of times formeldihyde (sp) is used to set the color. My mom was allergic to it and could always tell if the fabric had been treated with it.

It's when I wash a pastel fabric - and the water turns brown - and has bubbles - that I really wonder!

The formaldehyde smell is awful. I can remember going in fabric stores and having my eyes burn from it.

I have to wash ALL fabrics before I can use them because something is in them / on them that irritates my eyes,nose
throat or skin more and more as I get older. It ha gotten worse and testing for what it is does not reveal anything specific. Precuts are tricky but they must have some treatment too. Sink washing with soap meant for knits and Retayne , then BestPress , is what I do. Jelly rolls are sewed, then rinsed and ironed as above.

Angela Walters calls it by a name and that is "fondling" or something similar.

You would think that with all the formaldehyde on fabric (and a lot of fabrics have it) that we would all look younger, after all it is a preservative. LOL

Learned something here !

I don't think the fabrics have as much odor as they did 30 years or so ago. My eyes and nose don't burn now when I am in a fabric store like they did years ago. Surely the processing has changed a bit over the years.

What is going on with the fabrics I buy? I don't have those issues. I soak pieces of them to see if they will bleed and so far nothing has bled and I don't get those listed things.

I agree! I remember having to leave the store because of burning eyes, etc. Haven't had that happen in years

Several years ago I was sewing with a good brand of white fabric. I didn't prewash because it was white. Every time I got near that fabric I got a horrible migraine that would last for days. From then on I prewash all my fabric. Not only for bleeding, but for all the junk manufacturers use in the factories.

Here is something related I just googled. I didn't know most of information. https://www.all-about-quilts.com/che...in-fabric.html

Luckily I never smell anything on my fabrics or when I wash them. I don't buy real expensive fabrics either. I pay mid prices. Fabrics never stink, bleed, shrink or anything. Of course, I don't go looking for anything.

I know they use something in new fabrics that I am highly allergic to. I have to wash all new fabric or clothes, and wash my hands as sooon as can if I have been clothes or fabric shopping or it sets off my eczema on my hands so bad that water hurts to touch.

I wash all my fabric before it ever gets in my sewing room. The first thing I do when I get home with new fabric is throw it in the washing machine. I don't buy precuts because they don't do well in a washing machine and they shrink so the 5x5 is no longer 5x5.

Those small pre-cuts or scraps you get from 'goodness knows where' can be swished gently in water then spun almost dry in a salad spinner. An idea I learned a while ago.

There is a lot of very important information given in response to this thread.
We all do well to be aware of the chemical content of the fabrics we use and employ methods (washing) to cut back on the problems we encounter. Obviously, some are more sensitive than others. However, I would like to make the same point about harmful chemicals in other aspects of our lives such as our food chain. We need to be very careful of the content of the food we eat.

Glad I read this thread! I thought it was just me. The last few years have been getting worse...every time I let new fabric(quilts and clothing) touch my skin, I get a nasty, itchy rash where it has touched me. I have to be very cautious even carrying fabric to the laundry room, so it doesn't touch me. I never used to be this way, I could grab a bundle of cloth and be fine..so it must be something they're adding to the fabrics.
I thought of fire retardant, but it's not in quilt fabric. Dyes..I doubt everyone uses the same formulas. Sizing? Do all fabrics have it in there? I doubt it. Whatever it is, I hate it!

dust from the mfg plant, dust from shipping and who knows what the foreign mfg use in the fabric. It's a crap shoot.

Some years ago a friend & I bought one of those Cheapo Quilts made in China, just to tear it apart and see (other than slave labor) what made it so cheap. Well, the fabric was crap to start with, but the inside batting was and still is a mystery to us. We found short coarse hair, like either rats or dogs and there was A LOT OF IT. I would never want to sleep under anything made in that country.

Same with me on the irritating of the fabric. I had to start washing all of it about 5 yrs ago. I often even wash the scraps I get from others IF they haven't been washed. They must be using something different overseas now.