How come my paint is curdling when I mix with fabric softener

What kind of paint are you using Corinne? Did you use fabric medium with your paint?

https://www.wikihow.com/Paint-a-Fabric-Chair

You should use fabric MEDIUM not fabric softner.

This blogger uses fabric softener and she talks about the texture changing: https://www.lilyardor.com/paint-your-couch/

Lucky Home is correct you should mix fabric medium with paint and that is basically so you get a softer result. Other methods tend to leave you with a stiffer, more leather-like finish.

Should be mixing fabric medium, water, Floetrol not fabric softener.

Ok folks. Thank you for your help. I seem not to

have explained my problem correctly. Let’s change

crudling to grainy The paint becomes grainy as I stir it verses creamy.

Fabric medium is a better bet since it's made for this use, however, I do know that there are a ton of DIYs out there that recommend fabric softener. The issue might be with your ratios. I've seen recipes with 1 part paint to 2 parts fabric softener to using equal parts. Or perhaps your particular paint or fabric softener is causing a poor chemical reaction.