Ask Purl Bee: All Natural Materials

ASK PURL BEE! Please send us your questions about sewing, knitting, and anything else craft-related to us via the Ask Purl Bee page.

 
Our first question comes from Comfies:

My question is two-fold: What do you recommend using as stuffing for soft toys? And more importantly do you have a recommendation that is also eco-friendly?

So far I've used the stuffing from a cheap pillow insert I bought at the fabric store, but I'm wondering if you have any other suggestions...or if that's pretty much what everybody does.

Incorporating natural materials into our crafts is very important to us here at Purl, whether we're sewing, knitting, or stuffing a lovingly-made toy. 

NATURAL STUFFING 

For the Purl Rabbit, Purl Critter, and Best Bunnies, we use Sweet Dreams 100% cotton stuffing from Quilter's Dream because it maintains its form, can be loose or firm, and smells good.  Cotton stuffing seems to be about as simple a material as you can get. It is packaged in a roll, so for flat projects like potholders you may cut it with a scissors, or pull it off by hand. To use as stuffing, gently pull apart each segment, opening it up with your fingers.  This will encourage the loft and fluff of the stuffing.

Another alternative is Nature-fil, a greenhouse gas neutral polymer that is made from corn sugars (that means that the chemical process used to make this product emits no harmful gases into the atmosphere).  The production of this plant-based product uses less than half the fossil fuels required to create other synthetic polymer stuffing materials. Our friend Amy Butler recommended it to us; she uses it in her Gum Drop Pillows and other patterns from her collection of home decorating projects. We'll have Nature-fil at Purl soon!

NATURAL BATTING 

For blankets and quilts we love Quilter's Dream Cotton Batting and Dream Wool. Cotton batting has heft and comfort without being too plush. It gives quilts just enough cushion between the fabric layers to show off the stitching. Cotton batting is ideal for lighter projects, such as summer blankets and throws. Wool batting is much loftier, bulkier, and warmer than cotton. It lends a rich, billowy texture that leads to luscious quilting.

Our second question comes from Louise:

I've been happily handquilting for a few years, always using cotton batting.  For my next project, I'd like very much to try wool batting but I'm concerned about bearding (wool fibers migrating through the fabric).  I read that one way to avoid the problem is to place a layer of cheese cloth between the batting and the fabric.  Does it really work?  Is there a particular brand of batting that is known for being "beard-proof"? 

 
'Bearding' or migrating wool fibers are the result of the batting moving around or bunching between the lines of stitches in a quilt. Loose fibers work their way through to the front of the fabric, creating a haze, or beard, all over the surface of the quilt.  

We had not heard about layering cheese cloth between batting and fabric before, Louise, but here are a few suggestions quilters have shared with us for the care of quilts with wool batting:

1.  Thoroughly baste your quilt layers before quilting to insure that the batting is flat.  

2.  Prewash all of your fabrics before piecing or quilting.  If your fabric shrinks after quilting, it can cause the batting to bunch together.

3.  Once it is complete, wash your quilt according to the manufacturer's guidelines. 

In addition to these precautions, it is important to choose a high quality batting.  Dream Wool, the superwash merino wool batting we recommend at Purl, uses an environmentally friendly process to bond the top layer of wool fiber together with heat (rather than harsh chemicals), creating a thin barrier that prevents bearding.  "Thermal bonding" relaxes the surface layer of the wool, merging the fibers as they bend under the heat.

Comments

[ina and gumby]

... thank you for all the wonderful information ... and oh ... i just discovered how beautifully the search tool displays the "answers" of what you're looking for ... i love it ... didn't know there were so many lovelies from amy butler in stock ... happy days ... mille baci ...

[Mimi K]

About stuffing for softies- I personally have found cotton very difficult to work with. I've struggled with lumps and hard spots. There are other natural or eco-friendly choices, many that have been used for years. They are especially appropriate for primitive type dolls. Rags- cut up all your scraps and use them for stuffing. You can make a core of scraps and then wrap it in a softer stuffing if the "rags" make your creation too hard. Sawdust- a traditional doll stuffing- doesn't make a soft softie. Wool- my favorite! Wool can be purchased as a batt and used for stuffing. It is beautiful to work with and very similar in feel and use to the best polyester stuffing. Also, wool keeps its' loft, important in a toy.
I've often thought/wondered about using a thrifted wool blanket as a batting in a quilt, although that's still on my list of future projects to try...

[purl bee]

Thanks for the suggestions, Mimi!

[Louise]

Thanks for answering my question about wool batting. I'm reassured that you recommend Quilter's Dream. I use Quilter's Dream Select cotton batting for all my quilts, so I'm excited to try their wool batting on a small pastel color quilt as a test.

[Friederike! & Sandra]

Hello purl bee,
thank you for sharing your experience with natural stuffing material. After a long research we discovered Kapok as a good stuffing material.
You can read about it on my blog
http://herzensart.blogspot.com/
Friederike! & Sandra

[purl bee]

Kapok is also a fiber used in papermaking, incidentally.
Thanks for the suggestion!

[Barbara]

Hi, I have pure wool batting from shepherds dream. I made a very large dog bed but the problem is the wool keeps flattening out. Is there a way to fluff it up without pulling each piece apart by hand? The company said to just put it out in the sun, but that doesnt fluff it. Thanks for any suggestions.

[purl bee]

Dear Barbara,
the best way to keep it fluffy is to wash and dry it. But it will flatten out with something heavy laying on it.