Quote for the Day:
"Never work before breakfast;
if you have to work before breakfast, eat your breakfast first."
~Josh Billings
Sometimes necessity is the mother of invention. Sometimes cheapness is the mother of invention. And sometimes it's BOTH! :)
Downy came out with a product recently called " 'Unstoppables, in-wash scent booster". Maybe you've seen it...
I was lucky enough to not only get a trial size packet in the mail, but also a full-sized bottle for free in the mail. It says to add it to your wash to make a long-lasting scent. However, between the scented laundry soap and the scented fabric softener, I think my clothes have enough scent to them! Except for use with towels that have gotten "musty" smelling over the summer, I can't really see a use for them.
Until today!
A couple weeks ago I got a GREAT deal on some fat quarters (FQ's) on Ebay. (For those of you who don't know what a FQ is, it is 1/4 yard of quilting fabric that is cut 18" X 22" instead of 9" X 44", which is what a "standard" 1/4 yard of fabric is. It's the same amount of fabric, but just cut differently so you can get more uses out of it.)
Anywho...I got a great deal on 210 of these...averaged out to about 66 cents/FQ, which is a heck of a deal! Seventy were from one seller and were fine. However, 140 were from a second seller and smelled of smoke.
Yes, I *could* have washed them, dried them, ironed them, and then folded them to put away, but that seemed a LOT of hassle and would involve a LOT of time at the ironing board. Besides, I gave up prewashing my fabrics since I always wash the finished quilts to get the markings out. The only things I prewash now are reds, blacks, (to help prevent bleeding in the final project) and flannels (to facilitate shrinkage).
I decided I didn't want to hassle with washing all these FQ's, so I was trying to figure out a way to help with the smoke smell when a light bulb went on in my head this morning! I decided to make pomanders using the Unstoppables. After looking around for a way to contain them for this use, I thought about sewing little bags from extra fabric, but didn't want to go to all that fuss, when what did I spy with my little eye??? But my stash of envelopes culled from all the credit card offers we receive in the mail! (We save them and use them for our "envelope" budget system!) :)
This is what you will need for this project...
Seal the flap of the envelope and then cut it in half...
Pour a SMALL amount of Unstoppables into one half of the envelope...
...trust me, you won't need much. These things are STRONG!
Use tape to seal up the cut edge of the envelope...
Place your new "pomander" where ever you want to freshen the smell. I put one in each of my FQ storage containers.
I also put one in the linen closet. I don't know why linens get that "smell" to them after they've been stored in the closet for a while. Do yours get that smell, too? And I know it's not just this house, because every house I have lived in, the linens get a smell to them, as do things stored in a dresser for a while. Maybe it's something from the wood???
Hope this has been helpful!
Loretta
Sure could have used those Un-Stoppables when my hand-dyed fabric was in a shop that had a small fire in the basement...took forever to get that smoke smell out. You're a genius!!! Congratulations on the great deal on FQs too. The price of fabric nowadays makes that deal even sweeter.
ReplyDeleteI buy a liquid fabric softener that has to be diluted. So, I use fabreze to dilute it, and pour that mixture in the softener area. Works great for dog blankets that haven't been washed right away. The un-stoppables trick sounds great for closets! I'll have to try it. Love the idea.
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