Giving Thanks for Natural Stuffing

Nope. I'm not talking about turkey (or tofurkey) stuffing, although we all have our favorite recipes. I'm thinking more along the lines of a recipe for natural crafting goodness.

This year, I am grateful for the increasing accessibility to natural fiberfill toy stuffing. Want to know why? Because I'm tired of people who want to sell us something telling us it's completely safe when it isn't. 


Why do people sell something? They want you to buy it. But WHY do they want you to buy it?

Natural stuffing choices, like cotton, kapok, and wool, were the norm until the 1960s when polyester fiberfill, a revolutionary, washable, lightweight fiber was made popular as a toy stuffing in mass-produced stuffed animals. Polyester fibers are made from oil-waste and by the 1960s, what to do with oil-waste was becoming a big problem. "Pollution" became a topic of motivation to reinvent this hazardous waste.

So makers of plastics want you to buy their products, because they don't want you to complain about that hazardous waste going into in your landfills, waterways, and air instead.

But polyester fiberfill is listed in the US Toxic Substances Control Act due to its toxicity when 1) it makes contact with soft tissue (eyes, lungs, stomach) and 2) when it produces highly toxic fumes when it burns.

Polyester fiberfill manufacture requires the use of half a dozen known highly toxic, carcinogenic, and polluting chemicals including dichloroethane. The making of these fibers, even the recycling of them, can never be considered eco-friendly given the amount of toxic pollution it causes to air and groundwater. According to this toxicology report by the CDC (Center for Disease Control), dichloroethane has been found in peanut butter due to manufacturing run-off into local groundwater near peanut farms.

If you aren't quite familiar with what polyester fiber really is, read this fascinating article describing the formation of polymers and specifically polyester and why it is more toxic than we have been led to believe.

Thank goodness nature is still providing plant and animal fibers for use in crafting, sewing, quilting, and toy-making. If you haven't played with warming wool fleece, bouncy non-GMO corn stuffing, or luxurious kapok, you're missing out on a world of sensory delights. 

Ready to buy a natural fiberfill? Here's my latest list of sources for natural fiberfill and also fabrics. 

And if you want to know more about the toy stuffing performance of various types of natural fill, read this.

To-do: If you have any favorite natural fiber or fabric sources where you live, please share them in them in the comments or email me so I can include them in the list. 

PS: Click on the turkey photo for a link to the pattern by Angel Lea Designs.

Natural Fiberfill Comparisons - Part Three: Washability

Eight little dolls were filled with natural fiberfill: bamboo rayon, corn PLA, organic cotton, eucalyptus tercel, hemp, kapok, uncarded wool tops, and carded wool fleece. In my last post, I outlined what each one was like to use and what the material looked and felt like. But how would these fare in the laundry room?

Part One: Costs & Sources
Part Two: Ease of Use

I raised two kids who owned at least a dozen quality polyester fiberfill stuffed dolls that bunched and matted and got all clumpy and uneven after machine washing. So it's not true that plastic polyester fiberfill is the toy stuffing that dreams are made of.

Is the problem in the stuffing or in what we expect from products that were never intended to be soaked through and through,  roughly agitated, and then overheated? Well, in my opinion, the toy is going to lose the washer/dryer battle in most cases regardless of what kind of toy stuffing is used.

But just for giggles, I threw all eight little dollies into the washing machine with stinky synthetic liquid laundry detergent (SSLLD). I don't use SSLLD. I use grated Ivory soap and washing soda mixed together. But since wool shouldn't be washed in either washing soda or borax and because you probably don't make your own homemade laundry powder, I used a little bit of my housemate's SSLLD.

The dolls were washed in cold water in a top loader with a central agitator on a short but normal cycle. I don't own a dryer so I took the washed dolls directly to a local laundromat to dry them. The dolls were dried for 30 minutes on high heat. I have compared the overall results of washability to the end result of washing and drying a polyester fiberfill stuffed doll. 


Here's what happened:

BAMBOO
I only had a large handful of this stuffing to work with. I filled the arms, legs, and head completely, but the body was super lightly stuffed. After washing and drying, it has just gone all wrong. It didn't dry completely and 10 hours later is sitting on the table still slightly damp. Overall - inadequate testing.

HEMP
One day later, this doll is still wet. The hemp stuffing has shifted and bunched and if you squeeze the doll, it feels as though it has plasticine inside. And it has a moldy smell when wet or damp. Overall not recommended.

I think this stuff would be brilliant in a craft not likely to be thrown in the washer, like pincushions or doll furniture. It has a quality of being a good solid, old-fashioned stuffing. It would be a great product for a doll's faux horsehair filled sofa for example.

CORN PLA
Corn PLA feels like bunches of very soft, fluffy steel wool right out of the bag. It's next to impossible to stuff the doll due to its slippery, oily nature. It's very difficult to work with. But it fills the toy really well and creates an almost seamless quality leaving very little puckering of the outer fabric shell. It washed and dried almost perfectly. The only problems seem to be that 1) the stuffing in the arms separated from the rest of the body so the arms are slack where they jut out from the body and 2) even when completely dry, the doll feels cold to the touch, much like linen fabric. It's cold! I'm not sure I want to give a child a cold toy to cuddle. Overall great washability - except for that armpits thing.

And remember that whole stinky synthetic liquid laundry detergent thing? This is the ONLY doll that smells of the detergent. The fragrance has clung to the corn like cat hair to a black skirt.

COTTON
This washed and dried doll is brilliant! It retained its shape and looks great. The only drawback for some people might be its squishability because cotton is not a springy fiber. It's not hard as a rock or anything, just not as bouncy as what we normally think of when we use fiberfill. It's one of the two dolls whose stuffing didn't shift completely out of the neck and armpits. Overall great washability.

EUCALYPTUS
After washing and drying, this doll feels a bit slack in my hands. It has that cold quality, like the corn, even when dry though not nearly as frigid as the corn. If you squeeze the doll, the stuffing shifts inside. This was my favorite stuffing to use, but not my favorite results for washability. This doll came out closest to what happens when I have washed a polyester fiberfill doll. It goes slack due to bunching and shifting of the filling. Overall average washability.

KAPOK
This doll came out as lovely as the doll filled with cotton but the difference is in the texture of the fill. It's more bouncy and lighter than cotton. It has retained its shape and looks and feels wonderful. The stuffing shifted out of one of the armpits but was retained in the other which leads me to believe, it was how I stuffed the doll. Overall great washability.

WOOL (UNCARDED TOPS)
Surprise!! This stuff started out looking and feeling like dreadlocks, remember? This doll looks and feels better after washing and drying than it did before. It's as if washing and drying has melded all the wool fibers together. It's full and well-shaped and has a warm, squeezable quality and the stuffing stayed in the neck and armpits. Wool warms to the touch so it feels more alive and comforting than other stuffing. Frankly I'm shocked!  Overall good washability.

WOOL (CARDED FLEECE)
While wool tops did beautifully, sadly, fleece does not wash and dry as well. It did much better than I expected though. Wool can be thrown in the washer and dryer, although it will lose much of its lanolin and it might shrink if you don't know what you're doing. These dolls were washed in cold after all which is 1) recommended for wool and 2) the only temperature we have hooked up to our washing machine. But it feels like it has indeed shrunk a bit within the doll shell. It's not terrible. It's not a doll I would throw away if that happened by accident. It has similar qualities to the eucalyptus and to my own polyester fiberfill results. It's just not the best result for automatic washing machines and dryers. Overall average washability.

FINAL RESULTS FOR WASHABILITY:

• Corn PLA, cotton, and kapok out-performed plastic fiberfill in washability.
• Wool tops came in next. 
• Wool fleece and eucalyptus looked just like dolls stuffed with plastic fiberfill and washed: not so good but no worse.

Recommendations?

SPOT CLEAN YOUR TOYS. That's my best advice. The dolls filled with fleece, cotton, kapok, eucalyptus, and corn looked great after stuffing. If they are spot cleaned, I would recommend all of those for look and feel of the finished doll.

But if you are going to throw them in the washer/dryer, corn, cotton, and kapok (and maybe even the wool tops) look and feel better than similarly cleaned polyester fiberfill toys.

THANKS!

Thanks so much for sticking with these posts. It's been great fun to play with new fibers and see how they perform against the toxic poop of the oil industry: plastic polyester fiberfill. And yes, I will keep saying it with that bias because that's what it is. Waiter: reality check, please!

I have to thank Amanda Lerum of Corsetra Designs for sending me a handful of the bamboo stuffing just for fun. It was really lovely, but unfortunately, I didn't have enough to really test it for washability.

And many many thanks to Melissa of EcoFilling for the samples of the different natural fills she sells. She doesn't normally sell those smaller quantities and took the time to sort out and send 100gm quantities for me to test. I hope you'll avail yourselves of her business. It's small and mom-run and provides products that can't be found anywhere else.

Stay tuned. And please share your results in the comments if you use a natural doll and toy stuffing. We'd love to hear about it.

Natural Fiberfill Comparison Results - Part One: Costs and Sources

As promised, I have made a number of test dolls each stuffed with a different natural plant or animal stuffing and have been putting them through several tests for ease of use, feel of the doll, weight, and washability.

This is the first of a three part comparison of the stuffings.

Part One - Costs and Sources

Part Two - Texture/ Ease of Use

Part Three - Washability

In 1965, Victor Danberg filed for US patent for a stuffed toy filled with polyester fiberfill. He made claims about its washability and lightweight durability. At this time many stuffed toys were filled with kapok which according to the file tended to mildew. Mr. Danberg also compares the plastic fiber to other natural fills which tend to absorb wash water and remain wet for a long period after washing.

Space age, clean and sterile, plentiful, factory produced: these were highly regarded qualities born of the post-war boom years. With a growing middle class came a growing household appliance industry. Automatic clothes washing machines were more the norm than the luxury although it took automatic driers longer to become a household standard. The toxicity of plastics manufacturing was not yet known. And the toxicity of their use was not considered.

These days, consumers are better informed. We are well-aware of the toxicity of plastics, both in their manufacture and in their use. Polyester fiberfill, while considered inert in its final form, is registered with the US Toxic Substances Control Act for, although it is considered unlikely to be inhaled or ingested, inhalation and ingestion are not without serious health risks which are clearly stated in that registry.

Natural craft stuffings tend to be more expensive than plastic fiberfill. In many cases, however, less stuffing can be used per item bringing the final cost of use closer than expected. 

The list below is not exhaustive. If you know of sources for natural fills, please leave the information in the comments below or email me and I will add the source to the list.

Where to buy natural fiberfill:

(when based in the US, listed in US$. When based in Australia, listed in AU$)

BAMBOO 

     Based in the US -

     Hancock's: Nature-Fil 12 oz. $15 (current special at $6.74)

CORN

     Based in the US -

     Amazon: Mountain Mist 12 oz. 12.83/ 3 lbs. $29  GMO product

     Fairfield: Nature-Fil 12 oz. $13  GMO product

     Based in AU - 

     Innergreen: Corn Toy Fill 5 kg $95./ 10 kg $150 Non-GMO product

     EcofillingAustralia: Corn Fibre Fill 500 gm $20/ 1 kg $40 Non-GMO product

COTTON

     Based in the US -

     HoneybGood.com: Organic cotton fill $11.40 per lb.

     NearSea Naturals: $10.48 1.88 lbs.

     Based in AU -

     EcoFillingAustralia: Organic cotton fill $17.50 500 gm/ $35 1 kg

     Based in UK:

     Mohair Bear Making Supplies: 200 gm 3 pounds/ 500 gm 4 pounds/ 1 kg 7.42/ 2 kg 12 pounds

EUCALYPTUS

     Based in AU -

     EcoFillingAustralia: Eucalyptus toy fill $20 500 gm/ $40 1 kg

HEMP

    Based in US -

    NearSea Naturals: Hemp fibers .13 lb $2.57

    Based in AU -

    HempWA.com: must contact their retailers for prices

    EcoFillingAustralia : 500 gm $20/ 1 kg $40

KAPOK

    Based in US -

    Amazon: 5 lbs. $40

    Based in AU -

    EcoFillingAustralia : 500 gm $40/ 1 kg $80

    Kapok.com.au: 100gm $10/ 1 kg $79

WOOL TOPS/BOLUS

    Based in US -

    NearSea Naturals: bolus 1.13 lbs. $19.25

    Based in AU -

    EcoFillingAustralia: 500 gm $15/ 1 kg $30

WOOL CARDED FLEECE

    Based in US -
    West Earl Woolen Mill: 1 lb. about $7 very soft and clean

    A Child's Dream Come True: 8 oz. $11.90/ 1 lb. $21.90

    Amazon: varies - 8 oz. $10/ 1 lb $23 - $32

    Based in AU:

    MorningStar Crafts www.morningstarcrafts.com.au:
        250 gm $10/ 500 gm $20

    Virginia Farms Woolworks: $22 1 kg

    EcoFillingAustralia: Merino carded fleece 5 kg $170/ 10 kg $320

Part Two of this comparison will compare the textures of the fills and ease of use in stuffing the dolls.

Here is Part Two and here is Part Three of the comparison results.