Speaking of removing odors (fabric question)

[Kells]

A question about a musty smell reminded me I have a stinky lot of various fabric goods up on a shelf out in the garage. I bought a big lot from a local estate auction of beautiful needlepoint rugs, some stitched quilts, and a few rugs printed on felt (I think it's felt). Unfortunately, the previous owners were smokers. THEY REEK!!! 18 months later, the smell has not lessened.

I have not tried anything to clean them but I really should. I assume Woolite would work on the needlepoint. Maybe on the quilts too? I am hesitant to try anything at all on the printed felt rugs. I'm afraid the color will bleed. Has anyone cleaned something similar? I snapped a pic of one of the rugs. They and the quilts are all very nicely done. I don't care about the discolored fringe and yellowing with age - that just adds character IMO - but the smell, OMG!

[Mid-life madness]

I bet the yellowing is actually nicotine. The rug might just be white. It sure is nice. Have you googled how to clean needle point?

[peonyfoxburr]

A question about a musty smell reminded me I have a stinky lot of various fabric goods up on a shelf out in the garage. I bought a big lot from a local estate auction of beautiful needlepoint rugs, some stitched quilts, and a few rugs printed on felt (I think it's felt). Unfortunately, the previous owners were smokers. THEY REEK!!! 18 months later, the smell has not lessened.

1 hour ago, Kells said:

A question about a musty smell reminded me I have a stinky lot of various fabric goods up on a shelf out in the garage. I bought a big lot from a local estate auction of beautiful needlepoint rugs, some stitched quilts, and a few rugs printed on felt (I think it's felt). Unfortunately, the previous owners were smokers. THEY REEK!!! 18 months later, the smell has not lessened.

In one of my other lives, I belong to a large fiber arts online community—Ravelry—and the question of deodorizing stinky yarn comes up quite often! 

The commonest remedy suggested, that doesn’t involve actual washing, is to seal the malodorous fibers in an airtight container with activated charcoal. The more surface of charcoal is exposed to air, the better. Offensive smells included mustiness, tobacco smoke, and animal urine.

If your needlepoint rugs were stitched with silk or wool thread, they should be okay to soak/wash in cool water. Silk is actually very strong, though when wet it is more susceptible to stretching. And with wool, the two things to avoid are heat and movement, which will felt wool. If you can locate some of the products specifically designed to wash wool, like Eucalan or Eco-Wash, those are very gentle. If you have a local yarn store, they might carry one or the other. 

About the printed felt rugs, the charcoal treatment might de-stink them, too. You’re right to be cautious about washing them.I assume that they are produced by running them through an inkjet printer, and you know what happens to those inks when you get the paper wet! 

[peonyfoxburr]

Oops, apologies for repeating the quotation in my post. 

[Kells]

1 hour ago, Mid-life madness said:

I bet the yellowing is actually nicotine. The rug might just be white. It sure is nice. Have you googled how to clean needle point?

I bet you're right! I didn't even think of that. The brown stains on the fringe especially look like nicotine stains. More on Googling in a second....

31 minutes ago, peonyfoxburr said:

The commonest remedy suggested, that doesn’t involve actual washing, is to seal the malodorous fibers in an airtight container with activated charcoal. The more surface of charcoal is exposed to air, the better. Offensive smells included mustiness, tobacco smoke, and animal urine.

If your needlepoint rugs were stitched with silk or wool thread, they should be okay to soak/wash in cool water. Silk is actually very strong, though when wet it is more susceptible to stretching. And with wool, the two things to avoid are heat and movement, which will felt wool. If you can locate some of the products specifically designed to wash wool, like Eucalan or Eco-Wash, those are very gentle. If you have a local yarn store, they might carry one or the other. 

About the printed felt rugs, the charcoal treatment might de-stink them, too. You’re right to be cautious about washing them.I assume that they are produced by running them through an inkjet printer, and you know what happens to those inks when you get the paper wet! 

Charcoal! I googled and that does seem to be a good option. One of the instructions says to keep it off the fabric itself due to staining, and just put it into the container with the item.

After Carrie asked about Googling, it occurred to me I was probably searching for the wrong thing. I looked for "How to Clean Needlepoint." Wrong question. How to Remove Smoke Smell from Non-Washable Items is a better one! I'm going to pick up some baking soda on my next trip to the store. I suspect it's going to take several tries; these really smell! If that doesn't work, activated charcoal it is, thank you! I'll let you all know how it works out.

[Kells]

Baking soda worked on the felt rugs. They seem to be okay now. I sprinkled baking soda directly onto everything, let it sit a few days in sealed containers, then vacuumed it off with a little handheld vacuum. I made sure nothing was overlaying or stacked on top of anything else.

I think the baking soda helped a bit on the needlepoint and quilts but they still have a lingering smell. That may be due to their thickness, especially the quilts due to the batting. There's just more material there to hold odor than thin printed felt rugs. I am going to have another go and see if Round 2 works, but I'm pretty sure I'll be going with activated charcoal on those.

[havanaholly]

Have you hit them with a spritz of Febreze?

[Kells]

7 minutes ago, havanaholly said:

Have you hit them with a spritz of Febreze?

I've used Febreeze successfully on mini upholstered furniture, but those only had some musty basement odor. It didn't do anything to lessen the smoke odor on these items. The previous owners must have been really heavy smokers! Or at minimum these were probably in their home for a long time and exposed to that stink for years. I didn't try Febreeze on the felt because of the moisture issue. The colors didn't run on the quilts or needlepoint. Of course, that was just from a fine spray mist; I'm still hesitant to wash them but may do if charcoal doesn't work.

[havanaholly]

If the charcoal doesn't work, I don't know what will.

[steiconi]

Putting baking soda directly on fabric can bleach out colors.  Sounds like you did ok, though.  It's slower but safer to keep the baking soda in dish. 

[Kells]

31 minutes ago, steiconi said:

Putting baking soda directly on fabric can bleach out colors.  Sounds like you did ok, though.  It's slower but safer to keep the baking soda in dish. 

Eek, the link I posted above didn't mention anything about that. They must have used colorfast ink. However, I am going to get it off my second round attempt on the quilts and needlepoint rugs. Not pushing my luck twice. Charcoal here I come. For that, I did read not to put it directly on the fabric because it will discolor.

[Kells]

Following up in case anyone else ever runs into this problem. ACTIVATED CHARCOAL WORKED! I should have just done that in the first place. Obviously did not apply the charcoal directly onto any fabrics like I did the baking soda. Sounds like I lucked out that it didn't bleach out any colors. Thank you all for your assistance! I've been really wanting to use these.

[peonyfoxburr]

Thanks for the feedback. I recommended it based on what people on Ravelry posted, but it’s great to know first hand from somebody that it worked😁

[Kells]

49 minutes ago, peonyfoxburr said:

Thanks for the feedback. I recommended it based on what people on Ravelry posted, but it’s great to know first hand from somebody that it worked😁

I thank you, because the link I found didn't mention one thing about activated charcoal.

Here's what I did. I didn't have a "control group" to try this any other way, but I think this method made a difference.

I set everything onto cookie drying racks so there would be air circulation, and made sure no item overlaid another.

I put those into a Rubbermaid-ish under-bed storage container so the items would be sealed in with the charcoal. I used a very low, shallow one.

I left everything in for three days, and then turned everything over and put in fresh charcoal for another three days. Again, I have no idea if any of this was necessary. It worked so it's the procedure I'll follow should I ever need to do it again.

 

[Kells]

Forgot to mention, I spread the charcoal over a shallow baking sheet so as much as possible would be exposed to the air. I put the cooling racks right on top of that. Nothing touched the charcoal, to avoid staining, but the charcoal was spread out directly beneath all the items.