Puncture Holes in Brand-New Fabric?!

[kris10s]

I bought some stretch twill from Joann's on Tuesday to make a sling for a friend of a GCMer. I washed in Tuesday night and we had small group last night, so I sat down tonight to cut/iron/start sewing and I noticed (after I cut it) that there are puncture holes in it! FOUR of them! They are small but still... this sort of thing has never happened to me before with fabric off the bolt. Do you examine every inch of it before you buy?

Mike needed a new sling or pouch before Lexi arrived, and it was a piece long and wide enough for him, so it won't be totally wasted, but now I have to make it up to Joann's tomorrow and start the whole thing again... :hissyfit

[expatmom]

The Walmart in my home town staples the receipt to the fabric which puts puncture holes in the fabric. It used to drive me crazy! :hissyfit They wouldn't do it any other way because of the risk of theft.

Is it possible there was a staple in the fabric?

[kris10s]

Nope. No stapler. They don't even pin cutting table receipts.

[greenemama]

i've had this happen before, that and weird spots, like fades, etc. i try to inspect every inch, especially if i'm buying pricier stuff.

:hug that rots.

[lovelymama]

Joanns will give you store credit if you bring it back to them and complain. I buy muslin by the bolt and its really hard to inspect every inch in the store. Often times there are scuff marks and blue ink on it, they've never given me trouble when that happens.

How is your washer and dryer? We had a washer for a while that was tearing up our clothes. We never could find the spot that was causing the problem, but when we got a new one we stopped noticing holes in our clothing.

[Julia R]

Stormy's right. Usually Jo Ann's will work with you if you take it back. They did give me a hard time once on a 4 yard cut, that was pretty much all wasted. They ended up giving me a 4 yd cut of a similar print, but I had to push for it a little.

Look at the holes. Does it look like the threads got seperated and pushed aside a bit, making a hole. Or are the threads actually severed. If they are just pushed apart you may be able to push them back together with a needle or maybe by pulling gently on the bias or combing them with your fingers. Some fabric weaves do this pretty readily (more like satin weaves, I think.) I wouldn't think a stretch twill would be too likely. If the threads are severed and you still want to use the fabric, depending on their size, since it's for your own use and not for sale or anything, you might be able to pull it off. You need to secure the threads so they don't unravel. Fray check is a kind of glue that comes in a little bottle with a blue lid, cheapest at Walmart, and secures the threads. Or you could use the old fashioned fix it with clear nail polish- use sparingly, because it will dry stiff. If they are pin sized holes, maybe that's all you need to do. Otherwise you might be able to sort of darn over the fraycheck with matching thread. If the hole is small and you do it neatly, you may never notice where you did it.