Need advice to get odor out of carrying case
 

My mother just gifted to me her Featherweight which was in her basement for years. The case has a strong musty odor and I need advice on how to get the odor out. At this point, I am going to clean up the machine which is in remarkably good shape and place it in a new carrying case. I would like to save the original case though. At this point it is going into the garage because the odor is strong in my cutting room and I am worried about other items absorbing that odor.

Thanks,
Cheryl

Dear Heloise suggests rumpling up newspaper to fill the case and leave for a few days. Supposedly the newspaper will absorb the odor. I'm sure you will get lots of ideas.

This is an ongoing concern with old Featherweight cases and some are worse than others depending on where they have been stored. All sorts of remedies have been tried- activated charcoal, kitty littler, dryer sheets, Febreeze, sunshine. I used the Absorb compound that we always had on hand at school in case someone was sick. I washed it out well with bleach, Sunlight dish soap and vinegar and then put a container of the Absorb in there for a week and closed it up. Then I put it out on the deck in the strong sunshine for several days. It's now much better but I keep a bar of Irish Spring soap in it at all times. This seems to take care of the smell problem.

One method is to take a shop light, the kind with a cage around it that hangs, put a 150 watt light bulb in it...place the light in the case with the lid down and let it sit for 24 hours. The heat from the bulb absorbs the musty odor. Another method is to make a sachet of cheese cloth and charcoal and let it sit in the case for a week. Fabreeze helps in some cases. I have two featherweights and I line the bottom of the cases with dryer sheets, after I treated them with the light method. It helped a lot. Good luck you you. You can also sit the case, open, outside in the sun but you take a chance on cats and birds....

I use the lightbulb method and it has worked wonders! Right after taking out the lightbulb, I sprayed with a mixture of 1:1 water/Clorox Bleach. Then wiped it down. Then I made a sachet with shavings of anti bacterial soap inside to prevent the smell from returning. A year later, no mildew!

Baking soda in a box opened, try setting it inside the case for a week or two with the lid closed. It may help

Thanks for all the ideas. I am going to try the light method first.

"One of the worst odor culprits is the felt pad under the machine. It has absorbed years of oil. Remove it and toss it. New ones can be purchased on line or make your own using wool felt. Be sure to wipe the oil pan with kerosene to clean the old oil and odor off it. "

I did just that. I tossed the felt pad and purchased another. I let it sit with vanilla in a dish for about a week. Put it in the sunshine as much as possible and left odor eaters inside and closed it up. The smell is not completely gone but 99% better than it was. Now I could take it to class. I think the sunshine will do wonders.

Throw a cake of Irish Spring soap(the green original one) in the case, then put the whole shebang in the backseat of a car. Make sure the car is in the full sun and the windows rolled up. leave it in there for at least a full day, 2 would be better. Nothing growing will survive.