Natural Fiberfill Comparisons - Part Two: Ease of Use

Welcome to Part Two of the natural fiberfill comparison results.

If you haven't read part One: Costs & Sources click here.

I made eight simple cloth dolls from calico (US unbleached muslin) and filled them with 7 different stuffing materials (and two different grades of wool). Only those with an appreciable smell gets mention of odor. I began with 100 gm (3.5 oz.) of each fill except bamboo and the wool fleece which I grabbed from my own stock.

NOTE: When I speak of balling, clumping, or bunching while stuffing, I mean that as the fill is pushed into arms, head, or legs, it tends to pull together into a hard clump and as more fill is added, it merely sits behind the ball rather than meld with the fill already in the doll.

The dolls are identical. They are all 10" (25.5cm) tall and the hips are 3 1/4" (9.5cm) wide. The arms are 1 1/4" (3cm) wide mid-arm. All the dolls were stuffed to be about 1 1/2" (4cm) deep at the belly when stuffed. The exceptions are the bamboo because I had a very small amount to play with and the corn PLA which expanded to 2" (5cm).

These are my experiences with each one:

BAMBOO (Rayon)
Texture: soft and delicious
Sound: It squeaks when squished and kneaded.
Fiber length: medium
Ease of use: Easy to stuff with fingers or tool. Has some tendency to ball lightly as it is being pushed in but less than other fills. I was limited to a small amount of this fill and it did not fill the doll completely. The arms and legs and head were firmly filled, but the body is only loosely filled.
Amount of stuffing used: Started with just a good handful so I don't know how much I used. It was not enough to fill the doll.

NOTE: Bamboo habitats serve endangered species of animals. Be sure to question your sources to ensure ethical harvesting.

CORN
Texture: Feels most like plastic fiberfill. In fact, it feels more plastic than real plastic. Has an oily texture and leaves a thin oily residue on skin. Fluffy and bouncy. Bounces back when compressed. Feels like tiny balls of fill when pulled apart, similar to wool bolus, but immediately bonds to itself and magically melds together magically without feeling like dozens of tiny bits.
Fiber length: Fibers are somewhat short.
Ease of use: This was the most cumbersome fill to use. Its slippery nature made it frustrating as my fingers and tools would just slide by the stuffing as I was trying to push it into place. It has this magical quality of melding together seamlessly avoiding nearly all clumping or balling, and it expands really well, filling the area well. But I nearly lost the will to live trying to get that little doll stuffed. The neck is a bit unstuffed as it was so difficult to get purchase on the fill to help fill it out and connect it to the body. The stuffed doll feels lovely, however, and if you want a doll that feels like a lightweight but well-stuffed plastic fiber doll, this is the one to use. This stuffing created the most depth to the doll as it expands after filling. If you have the patience, or maybe latex gloves, go for it.
Amount of stuffing used: 55gm (1.94 ounces)

NOTE: Some corn PLA fills are made from genetically modified corn and some is not. Nature-Fil and Mountain Mist use GMO corn. Innergreen uses non-GMO corn.

COTTON
Texture: Cotton just feels wonderful to me. It's soft but dense unlike plastic or corn fills.
Smell: Very lightly fresh, like old fashioned linens dried in the sunshine.
Fiber length: short to medium
Ease of use: Cotton fills completely and solidly. Fills small bits and tubes well. Able to use tool to catch bits to shove into neck and armpits to create a solid feel and no sagging. Took no time at all to stuff the doll. Doll feels more solid than most other fills.
Amount of stuffing used: 65gm (2.29 ounces)

EUCALYPTUS (Tercel)
Texture: Soft as a cloud. You'll want a roomful just to throw yourself into.
Fiber length: Long fibers
Ease of use: Very pleasant to use. Stuffs easily without balling, bunching, or clumping. Fills neck and armpits well and seamlessly. I was hesitant that the long fibers would fold and create hard balls and clumps. It's softer than anything I've ever felt. But it stuffed well and was my personal favorite for ease of use and overall lightweight quality. Very clean product. Lovely to work with.
Amount of stuffing used: 70gm (2.47 ounces)

NOTE: Eucalyptus habitats serve endangered species. Be sure to question your sources to ensure ethical harvesting.

HEMP
Texture: Take hemp string. Cut it into millions of 3-5cm/ 1-2 inch pieces. It feels like a cross between unbleached paper hairs and rope hairs.
Fiber length: short
Ease of use: This is terrible stuff for toys. Sawdusty. Must be stuffed a little bit at a time. Stuffs unevenly and feels like a series of (hair thin) straw clumps. Difficult to get it to fill small areas like the thumb of the hands. Does not bounce back when the doll is squeezed.
Amount of stuffing used: 70gm (2.47 ounces)

KAPOK
Texture: Soft, silky, and delicious to the touch.
Fiber length: medium to long
Ease of use: I was warned that you should wear a mask when filling a toy as the fibers become airborne in a heartbeat and make a mess of the room. I would cut that warning in half and say that grabbing it from the bag and stuffing the doll made some little bit of mess and yes, fibers were seen floating about now and then, and yes, it stuck to my jeans a bit and had to be lint brushed off, but it wasn't at all the exploding nightmare I thought it would be. It's a joy to use, except for the lint brush clean-up. It feels great in the hands, very soft. Stuffs mildly unevenly with a very little bit of balling and clumping next to some more lightly stuffed areas.
Amount of stuffing used: 60gm (2.12 ounces)

   
WOOL TOPS/BOLUS
Texture: Like dreadlocks. Matted bunches of hair.
Smell: like sheep but only when shoved up to my face
Fiber length: long
Ease of use: Basically, you are stuffing the doll with lumps of matted hair. Must stuff small bits at a time or it lumps and clumps and hardens into small balls terribly. Does not feel like fiberfill; neither silky nor uniform. Hard to pull apart bits. I have no idea what this is used for normally. UPDATE: Melissa of Ecofilling.com explained this organic wool is mainly used in pet bedding.
Amount of stuffing used: 60gm (2.12 ounces)

WOOL FLEECE
Texture: Bouncy and soft, but not silky.
Smell: like sheep but only if shoved up to my face
Fiber length: medium long
Ease of use: I have used this stuffing for many years and I will continue to use it although I am moved to try out the eucalyptus in my next doll. This stuff is easy to pull apart. It shreds beautifully and creates a very soft bunch in the hands to stuff with. Pushes easily with fingers or tool and a tool will grab bits to stuff necks and armpits to create solid and seamless stuffing. The main problem with wool fleece is learning how to not shove more and more in and creating clumps and a hard doll rather than a seamless stuffing in a lightweight doll. It's not difficult, but it is a bit of a learning curve. Luckily, because it has more heft than most stuffings, it will stay in place and you can pull it this way and that, in effect shredding it inside the doll to open the fibers and soften the stuffing. I love the way a wool stuffed doll feels as wool warms in the hands creating a life-like feel between the child and the doll.
Amount of stuffing used: I grabbed a hank from my stash from Morningstar Crafts so I don't know how much I used.

NEXT: Part Three: Washability

You'll be amazed at the results! The results of washing alone surprised me. Add the dryer and....well, you've just gotta come back. Safe to say, the results were NOT what I expected at all.

Eco-Friendly Fiberfill: Fact or Fiction?

 A lot of people are stating they use eco-friendly fiberfill in their toys and household products. But as yet, there is no measurable standard for the term eco-friendly. There is no carbon footprint marker. There are no maximum levels of waste produced in air, water, and landfills. And there is no requirement for biodegradability. Eco-friendly is a colloquial term only. There is no "there" there.

But there are products that are not harmful to the environment. So how should we choose? Here are some natural fibers and products.

• wool
• cotton
• down and feathers
• buckwheat
• kapok
• fabric, thread, and yarn scraps
• recycled denim insulation
• silk
• corn-based
• thistle down

Just because a product is natural does not always make it an eco-friendly choice. Case in point: NatureWorks corn-based fiberfill, while biodegradable and basically natural, is openly made from GMO corn products. For those for whom the GMO industry in general and Monsanto in particular is a red flag, corn-based eco-friendly fiberfill is simply not eco-friendly.

Bamboo has found a lovely following but now it has come to light that some bamboo harvesting is done unethically although there is a great deal of ethically managed bamboo as well. Additional concerns include claims of having naturally antibacterial properties, which bamboo has until it is highly processed and then it loses most of its antibacterial properties. This has led to companies adding synthetic antibacterial agents without reporting this to users of the product. Your bamboo stuffing may be clean and ethically made or it may be harvested improperly affecting local fauna adversely and coated with chemicals you didn't know were there.

Of course, plain old cotton isn't going to get away scot-free. Cotton is usually bleached which leaves a huge level of dioxin polluted waters in its wake. The cotton itself may have been grown saturated with pesticides. Natural cotton is not white. It may be yellow, brown, or green. Manufacturers heed your call for a clean-looking product and process and bleach and treat with toxic chemicals. But if you live near a cotton producer, chances are good you can purchase raw organic cotton for your crafts.

Mexico is a large producer of shredded denim insulation. This stuff is brilliant if not a complete mess to cut and use. But if you can get ahold of a bat or two of it, you could try it out.

PLA (polylactic acid) is the new watchword on eco-friendly fiberfill. read this Made from E. coli - I kid you not - PLA seems to use a much less polluting polymerization process than using oil waste. Still, it is new on the market and fermentation of E. coli as a renewable resource makes me wonder how much bacteria is entering the water table, but I'm hoping to see good results with this as long-term studies come in. CORRECTION: PLA is the same thing as the corn-fiber mentioned above. PLA is made from corn sugars. However, there is a new PLA material being made from E.coli.

Here's the ONE eco-friendly claiming fiberfill that will never be eco-friendly. Polyester fiberfill and/or recycled polyester fiberfill. Some people love the fact that poly fiberfill can be made from single use plastic water bottles. Some people think it is eco-friendly to manufacture plastic water bottles and then use and pollute the same amount of water to recycle those bottles into something else. Either way the carbon footprint is ridiculous and completely unnecessary.

Isn't it good to recycle? The question is faulty. It was a bad idea to use so much energy and throw so much pollution into air, water, and landfills to even make single serve plastic water bottles in the first place. We're not doing the world a favor by increasing the market for a polluter only to create nearly the same pollution a second time by reprocessing that synthetic and toxic substance. Eco-friendly would be to never have damaged the ecosystem in the first place. The only eco-friendly poly fiberfill is poly fiberfill that was never manufactured.

  
This brings me to my personal toy filling of choice: wool. Wool ignites at higher temperatures than cotton and synthetic fibers and has a lower rate of flame spread. It does not melt or drip causing burns or release highly toxic gasses into the air when burning as synthetic fibers do. 

Wool is considered to be naturally hypoallergenic because it is naturally mold resistant and is not as friendly an environment for dust mites which are the actual cause of many allergic reactions in people. Synthetic materials retain your sweat and encourage mold and dust mites and their droppings. 

Wool is an insulator and warms up next to the body making dolls comforting to hold and snuggle yet it moves moisture away naturally, without holding it to become a bacterial or fungal breeding ground. Wool is completely renewable. Sheep need shearing.

Wool alcohols in lanolin can be irritating to some people, that's a fact, but poly fiberfill can also cause skin irritation. Nothing is right for everyone. But sheep and organic cotton fields don't pollute our planet the way plastics manufacturing does.

Conclusion?  Plastics are the alternative. They were introduced less than 100 years ago. You don't have to look for "natural alternatives". Nature is the norm, not the alternative.
Cotton and wool have long been fibers of choice. Easily renewable. Can be organically produced. Bleaching not necessary. Warming in the hands and next to the skin. There are many natural, truly eco-friendly, and available sources for toy and pillow stuffing. We can be selective in our choices and not believe the lies of the oil and plastics industries.

We've always had the means to fill toys and dolls safely. There are existing cloth dolls from the 1st century. (Roman doll above.) This proves it isn't necessary to use something that will NEVER degrade to create a lasting product.

This online shop http://www.ecofilling.com has eucalyptus stuffing, hemp stuffing, kapok, wool, cotton, and GMO-free corn stuffing. It is based in Australia. It's a woman-owned and run home business.

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