the touch. the feel. the smell, of fabric?

I love the feel of designer fabric. It is so soft and thick, I love to fold it and smooth it out and cut it and iron it. I is just so beautiful! I can feel my pulse quicken when I walk into a fabric store and see all the brightly colored rows of gorgeous fabric all calling me to take them home! ( Yes, I have a bit of an unhealthy obsession but isn't a little madness required for genius? I'm not a genius really, just crazy.) Anyway, have you ever noticed the smell fabric has? My daughter is the one who pointed it out to me first and now I can't help but notice it. In fact it is part of my whole sewing experience now.

My daughter and I make numerous trips to our local fabric store, Joann's, several times a week. With my son in full time school and my daughter getting off at noon, she is the lucky one to accompany me. Joann's has a few things going for it, a GINORMOUS selection of fabric, TONS of interfacing and batting, HUGE deals and VERY nice ladies who always seem so interested in chatting with me about my current projects. I know they get paid to do so, but I still enjoy it! I prefer to purchase higher end fabric when I can but who can afford to sew everything out of $9 a yard fabric? Not me. So I take my trusty 50% off coupons and shop for just about everything there.


One day while trying to entertain my little Hailey, I let her carry around this little stuffed dog and of course was convinced to buy that little doggie (with a coupon!) at the counter. When we got home Hailey was furiously playing with the new addition and a hundred other very similar stuffed animals when she paused and said, "he smells like fabric!"


What?! I sniffed, and sure enough he did. It is sort of a potpourri and clean and cottony smell. I have since noticed my sewing room has a similar smell to it because of all the fabric I have stored in there. It's like my own mini fabric store.

Here is a small sample of my stash.

I kind hate to wash it because the new fabric smell gets washed away. I have noticed a slight difference in other fabric stores but it is all basically the same. Can anyone tell me why this is, is it the other things in the store that are perfuming the fabric or is it a smell all it's own? I guess I don't need to know, for me it's just the smell of hours of fun, waiting to begin!