After the purchase of one very lovely 60s gingham dress in NYC, I brought it home and pulled it out of its plastic bag to finally try it on. Only to discover that it REEKED of mothballs.
My nose has had the misfortune of smelling some pretty terrible odours in its 27 years on this planet (the Paris Metro tops the list), and mothballs are up there in the most revolting smell category. I don't know anyone who uses mothballs, and I can't honestly think why anyone would (apart from the whole moth-deterrent thing, obviously...)
I've never really had to deal with mothball smell in my clothing, and before starting my second hand/vintage clothing adventure, it's not something I had ever thought would be an issue. Boy, was I wrong.
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| Clothing enemy #1 |
A lot of vintage and second hand stores clean/steam their clothes before putting them on the racks, and I guess so far I had been lucky in that sense. But having thrifted this particular dress from a flea market, I suppose that cleaning garments was not high on the vendor's priority list.
I (wrongly) assumed that dry cleaning would take care of this odourous issue. It did not. I then assumed (again, wrongly) that running it through the wash with gentle, natural laundry detergent would surely drive away the stench. It did not. Ah, a nice soak in vinegar and cold water ought to do the trick! It. Did. Not.
Desperate for relief from the horrible smell of carcinogenic chemicals, I reached out to Google for salvation. Alas, I discovered that the silver bullet for getting rid of mothball smell was none other than fresh air and sunlight.
So after a full day of sunbathing on a drying rack today, my new dress smells like it should belong in one of those happy laundry detergent commercials where people sniff each others clothes, instead of a horror movie.
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| Who actually does this? |
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