Search Results for: ticking

Quilted Wool Fabric

This fabric is wool filled and thick.  It is perfect for creating your own ticking or for a cushioning, dustmite free pillow case. It is the same fabric we use in our Quilted Ticking and in our pillow case for the Millet Hull Pillow Kit.

Let it protect your latex mattress from the elements, such as sunlight, that cause yellowing of the latex and ultimately deterioration. You can sew your own Quilted Ticking with this pattern. Let it soften and smooth your pillow fill. Its thickness complements both shredded latex and millet hulls well.

Make a quilt out of it.  It is a blanket that will keep its shape and maintain that smooth look on your bed.

Since taking the picture, our stitching pattern has changed. It is now the same as the second picture.

Zipper by the yard

Zipper by the Foot
  • Natural Color
  • One Length Custom Cut
  • Pulls Included
  • #5 Coil Chain

Do you want to sew some ticking, but can’t find the 319″ length of zipper you need?  We have zipper on a spool that we can cut to your specified length. We supply it in a dark beige color, a simple contrast to our natural colored cotton fabrics. This is the same zipper we use in our tickings.

Unless more zipper pulls are requested, one pull will be included with each cut.  If you would like more, for example, you’ll want two pulls for the Expandable Ticking Pattern, specify so in the Customer Notes section on the Checkout Page.

Fire, Legalities and Wool

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BIG TOBACCO

The story goes, in the seventies, when everyone lit up and the number of deaths due to cigarettes in bed was rising, tobacco companies were urged to make their cigarettes safer.  However, since the best way to make cigarettes safer would be to not use them, tobacco companies went another route.  The three Big Tobacco Companies created an alliance called Citizens for Fire Safety. This committee lobbied heavily for flame retardants to be put into bedding and other products.

Now that media has exposed who is actually behind the Citizens for Fire Safety, the tobacco companies have disbanded that committee for a new one. However, their previous website can still be found. Their new alliance is called North American Flame Retardant Alliance. The Chicago Tribune does a good job exposing their recent manipulation of a particular legislation.

THE SMOLDER and BURN TEST

Because of current legislation that was initiated in the seventies by these companies, mattress producers must pass a smolder test and a burn test of their product. The smolder test is outlined in law 16 CFR 1632. It specifically “measures the ignition resistance of a mattress or mattress pad by exposing the surface to lighted cigarettes in a draft-protected environment…At least 18 cigarettes are burned on each mattress test surface, 9 on the bare mattress and 9 in between sheets placed on the mattress…Individual cigarette test locations pass the test if the char length is not more than 2 inches (5.1 cm) in any direction from the nearest point of the cigarette. “

The burn test is outlined in law 16 CFR 1633. A burn lab will burn a minimum of three mattresses and box springs, at about a $600 per mattress. The mattresses are ignited with a pair of open flame propane burners, much like a blow torch, on the side and the top of the mattress. The test measures how quickly the mattress burns, how hot it burns and how quickly the flame extinguishes after the torch is removed. To pass, your mattress must self extinguish in a particular amount of time as well as only have a certain percentage of surface area burned.

OUR MODEL

If you have read this far, you’re wondering what we do about this legislation. Quite simply, it doesn’t apply to us, so we don’t have to do anything.

We sell supplies, parts that would be useful if you wanted to assemble them to make your own mattress. You can make a mattress out of our parts, just as you could out of a few bales of straw and a futon case. True, unzipping a three-sided zipper on a piece of ticking and stuffing it full of latex or wool is not difficult for either us or a customer to do, but we deliberately do not assemble mattresses.

Our supplies model enables us to be exempt from the burn test law. Both laws define mattress as follows “Mattress means a resilient material or combination of materials enclosed by a ticking (used alone or in combination with other products) intended or promoted for sleeping upon.”

We do not sell parts enclosed in ticking, so we need no fire barrier and no burn test. No burn test for us, no chemicals and no government agency deciding what you can and can’t sleep on.

WOOL

Interestingly enough, our quilted ticking could pass the test. Wool is a natural fire barrier, especially when it is compressed so tightly that air, which fire needs to live, cannot penetrate it. The company who makes it for me reports many of their customers passing the burn test with it.

Testing over many years has confirmed that the high keratin protein and moisture content of wool make it naturally resistant to burning. It is difficult to set alight under most conditions and burns only weakly, forming a cold char, which tends to extinguish burning. It is important to note that wool is naturally fire resistant, not a fire retardant. Fire retardants reduce the flammability of materials by either blocking the fire physically or by initiating a chemical reaction that stops the fire. Pure wool without any added chemical fire retardants performs well as a fire barrier if it is used in the proper weight (app. 1.8 oz per square ft.) and is either mechanically densified (needle punched) or densified by the quilting process itself. Wool will burn at 600 degrees F; however if air is removed from the batting by densification, it performs very well and will pass the CFR 1633 burn test. This has been proven time and time again by many credible mattress manufacturers.

There are certain types of processed wool that perform better than others. Not performing well is wool batting that contains synthetic bonding agents; this batting sometimes does not act as a robust fire barrier due to the synthetic polyester used to bond the wool batting together. Another type of wool, raw grease wool is required by law to be scoured or cleaned and cannot be used as fire barrier in its uncleaned state. Some commercial wool available to bedding manufacturers is chemically scoured with hydrochloric acid. This process causes carbonization which strips the wool fiber of lanolin and even can destroy the outer sheath of the wool fiber itself, thus diluting its natural fire resistant properties. Carbonization is the term for the conversion of an organic substance into carbon or a carbon-containing residue through pyrolysis or destructive distillation. Carbonized wool smells like chemicals and is often bleached; two very good reasons we avoid it at all costs. The best performing wools are wools that are scoured in a mild biodegradable detergent without removing all the lanolin or stripping the outer sheath of the wool fibers. Natural pure wool processed in this fashion will pass CFR 1633 burn tests with very good results if used in the proper weight (1.8 oz per sq. ft).

Wool grown on farms or ranches utilizing sustainable ranching techniques without the use of chemical pesticides and overgrazing on pastures that contain no chemical herbicides or chemical fertilizers is the best conditions for purity of the wool. This is our wool.

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To read about flame retardants and their ability to impact our health, view this short video.

For more details on chemicals and mattresses, visit People for Clean Beds.
Some on the details of wool borrowed from Mattress Consultant.

Organic Twill Cotton Fabric

GOTS Organic Fabric

This organic twill cotton fabric is smooth, strong and durable. It is an economical fabric that would be good for toppers, ticking, or any other simple projects. Because it is a heavyweight woven fabric, it is easy to work with.

We use it in conjunction with our wool flake to make a wool mattress.  It is also a common choice when reupholstering a couch to use as an inner case underneath your outer fabric.

 

Luxurious

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What a great mattress and fantastic experience working with Deborah! We bought the 9″ King size with quilted ticking and it is amazing. I knew it would be comfortable but it really exceeds my expectations. It is just luxurious. Deborah was very helpful and we were able to fine tune our choices for each side of the king size. I plan to eventually switch all the mattresses in the house to this natural choice. Worth every penny! – A. B.

Buy and Try

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We are happy to give you a 60 day trial period to determine if the latex firmnesses are right for you. We understand that the only way to accurately decide if the latex firmnesses you picked out for your mattress are comfortable is if you sleep on them.

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Exchange

Mattress sized natural latex slabs in original condition are accepted for exchange without a charge within the first 60 days after delivery. We can exchange latex between firmnesses: for example, upgrade a firm piece to extra firm or hard or downgrade to medium or soft.  Custom cut sizes may not be exchanged.

To emphasize: We will only accept piece that are in original condition, that means, no wool on them and certainly nothing else. Please tape off or use a lint roller on your piece before shipping it back.

Shipping Back

    1. Pick a box to use; if you can reuse the original box, do so.
    2. Latex is ridiculously good at collecting dust and any particles it touches.  When removing it from its ticking, make sure you place it on a fresh sheet or a freshly swept/mopped floor.
    3. Roll your slab up and secure the roll with something that will not cut the latex like saran wrap. If you have a full, queen or king piece, fold it in half before you roll.
    4. Slip the roll into a giant plastic bag, such as a leaf bag
    5. Stick the hose attachment of your vacuum cleaner in to the bag and just barely into the middle of your roll.
    6. Grabbing the bag around the hose securing with one hand, suck the air out. Your latex should shrink to about half the size.
    7. When latex no long shrinks, remove the hose with your free hand while the machine is running. Be gentle, as tearing the latex would keep the piece from being accepted back.
    8. Immediately twist the bag end to prevent air from entering and fold twisted part of the bag in half.
    9. Tape the folded twisted bag together. The twist and the crimp will keep the air from escaping. Tape the crimp a second time, tightening it as tight as it will go.
    10. Take out that saran wrap again and wrap your piece vertically and horizontally, covering all holes. Alternatively you could tape both ends of your bag up inside plastic sheeting, but you’ll find the plastic wrap method much easier.  Your goal is to confine the latex to its current size. The strength of the plastic wrap or the sheeting and tape will keep it from expanding during shipment. Wrap or tape around the top, middle and bottom as well as the ends.
    11. Now it is simple. Slip the latex in the box. Tape it up and label it. If you have 3+ layers of thick sheeting around the latex, you could forgo the box.
    12. You are responsible for paying the shipping back to us; it will cost between $30-$70 to ship a piece via USPS; we share our commercial rates with you below. Do package the slabs well though because the latex can tear easily if not protected from the rough handling it will receive in shipping. We will not be able to give you an exchange if the piece arrives damaged.

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Make the Swap

Please click here on the Natural Latex Buy and Try Shipping to initiate the Buy and Try Swap.

This charge covers both the shipping of the new piece of latex as well as the return shipping and UPS pickup of the unwanted piece.

Where it goes

The worthy pieces of latex you send back to us appear in the Clearance section as they are still good pieces of foam. They are labeled as being part of the Buy and Try program.

Warranties

Organic Latex

​Your blocks of organic latex should not collapse or form body impressions for at least 15 years. Most people find that their latex, if thoroughly covered, will last 20-30 years. If you experience a sudden softening in your latex, there may be a structural weakening of the latex, such as a hidden air pocket causing the latex to collapse. ​ If you think your latex has softened, simply press down on a spot of the foam that doesn’t get much use, such as near your head and compare the resistance with a high-use spot, such as in the middle of where your body normally rests. If you can tell a significant difference, you probably have a valid claim.

If this is the case within 15 years of purchase, follow this link for instructions on sending us photos of the dips or bowing. We will send you a brand new piece of matching latex for your one replacement if the pictures can show us the issue.

If you use an adjustable bed frame, this warranty is not applicable as you are using the bed both for upholstery uses as well as sleeping purposes. The firmness chose for a mattress are not typically supportive and dense enough to withstand consistent upholstery style use.

The latex is not warrantied against biodegradation as there are too many variables in each house to account for. To prevent premature hardening of the latex, keep it well wrapped, in clean air, in a dark room, and away from heat vents.

The latex is also not warrantied against slight tears that sometimes occur in the packaging of the latex.  These tears are small (1-5″), not deep and do not affect the structural integrity of the latex. Your comfort and the durability of the piece is not affected, just the cosmetic appeal. See variations of organic latex in the Sizes and Variations tab on our organic latex product.

Sewed Pieces (Tickings and Pillow Cases)

​Our sewing work is warranted for 5 years for its durable stitching and zipper function. If stitches pop, we will fix that too and send it back to you.

Wool Puddle Pads and DIY Wool Puddle Pads

The wool felt is warranted for 3 years against thinning to nothing. Over time, the wool fibers will stretch apart, causing the felt pad to cover the sides of your mattress. If any fibers stretch too far apart and cause holes to appear before the 3 year mark, contact us for a replacement. Wool puddle pads used on a split mattress covered with Knit Ticking are warranted for 1 year.

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CONTACT US

​If any of these warranty issues arrive, please call or email us to get further instructions for repair or replacements. We will send you instructions on how to package your component properly to send it back to us for inspection. We reserve the right to evaluate your claim once your package has reached us.  You will either receive a new matching product to replace your defective latex or will receive back your fixed sewing work.

Wool and Latex Combo

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The Case for Wool on a Latex Mattress

Wool and latex share similar properties, so they accompany each other well on a mattress. They both won’t mildew, won’t harbor dust mites, are breathable, flexible and are good at distributing heat so you don’t end up too cold or too hot.

In a latex mattress, wool has another purpose as well as a comfort layer. It is an excellent protector of the latex. Latex is biodegradable; you can throw it in your compost pile when you are done with it. A few months later, it will be completely crumbled. Wool is not as biodegradable; you can weave it into garden mats to keep down the weeds and it will take 2 years for it to degrade rather than a few months. Natural latex contains an antioxidant, much like vitamin A is in our foods.  Once the antioxidant dissipates, the latex can be affected by oxygen. Direct sunlight, direct heat (as from a vent) and poor air quality can cause the latex to yellow and harden sooner than otherwise. Since latex is biodegradable, it appreciates being wrapped to keep it from the elements that cause it to prematurely harden.  Thus, the dense wool wrap adds a breathable layer of defense against the elements.

Some DIYers like to wrap their natural latex slabs with a batt of wool, some just like the quilted ticking with wool inside it. While a second cotton case would alternatively protect the latex, cotton just is not as nice of a fiber as wool. Also, a carded wool batt is more affordable than cotton fabric being a less processed fiber.

How it Works

Here we supply parts you can use to DIY your own bedding.  We can do all the sewing and washing and cutting or you can do those tasks yourself.

You can visit us in either Lafayette, IN (an hour northwest of Indianapolis) or in Brooklyn Park, MN to see all these products and to try out the different firmnesses of latex.

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MATTRESS

To make a mattress, pick out a fill (wool flake or natural latex or both wool batting and natural latex) and pick out a presewn ticking, which is a zippered shell or case (either quilted or knit or expandable knit. In our supplies section, you will find patterns and fabric to sew your own ticking. Common combinations of mattress making supplies are listed here.

To get an overview of common types of mattresses built from our supplies and how to assemble them, click on each ticking’s link below to see the possibilities as well as pros and cons for each build.

Quilted Ticking, AKA “The Simplest Method” or “For Longevity”

Knit Ticking, AKA “The Budget Method” or “For Latex Purists”

Twill Ticking, AKA “The Durable Method” or “For the DIYer”

To see a full explanation as well as complete assembly of a mattress in just 20 minutes, watch this video.

PILLOWS

To make a pillow, pick out a fill and cases. They are sold separately or in kits.

TOPPERS

Wool

Finished wool toppers with our farm wool are available.

To make a lofty wool topper, visit our supplies page to find the pattern and fabric to use. We also supply kits with fabric, pattern, tufting needle, twine and optional zipper closure.

Natural Latex

To make a latex topper, pick out a slab of latex (usually soft or medium firmness) and pick out a ticking or visit our supplies page to find a pattern and fabric to use.

COMFORTER

Finished wool comforters with our farm wool are available.

To make a comforter, decide how many batts of wool you want, then visit our supplies page to find a pattern (COMING) and fabric to use.  A comforter and a topper are similar and use the same supplies, but you’ll probably use only 2-3 batts of wool for a comforter and the pattern displays a knife edge instead of box corners.

WOOL BLANKET

You can buy a finished wool blanket made with wool grown, spun and woven all by small businesses in the US or you can buy the blanket fabric by the yard and make your own custom sized blanket.

WOOL PUDDLE PAD

You can buy a finished organic needle felted wool puddle pad (with serged edges and elastic straps) or you can add the finishing touches.

To make a wool puddle pad, decide how many yards you want of our 90″ needle felted wool. You will get to cut the fabric to size, serge the edges yourself and add elastic corner straps if you like.

Test it Out

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Test It Out

Test It Out

We welcome you to test out the five different firmnesses of natural latex at either our Lafayette, IN location or Eden Prairie, MN location. Rearrange the layers to find your depth and most comfortable solution for your bed.  Try out the pillows and see the ticking in action.

No stock is kept in MN, all products will ship to you; pillows, wool products, and clearance items available in IN for local pickup; MN addresses do not pay sales tax.

Both showrooms are run by families in their homes.  We’re glad you can stop by. Contact us to setup an appointment.

Millet Hull Pillow Kit

Millet hulls are the shell of the edible seed. Ours are grown from organic millet fields in Colorado.  The hulls are hypo-allergenic, are not habitable to dust mites, are cool to sleep on and are supportive and durable.

The millet hull pillow is a firm pillow, excellent for nestling in your head in its perfect spot and resting there all night. While it is not a pillow that can be fluffed as its fill is rather dense, it certainly is ready for the middle of the night shove to adjust it to a slightly new height as you roll over. If you want a custom contour pillow, this is the pillow for you.  The millet hulls can be easily molded around your head and under your neck. When slept on, they do not budge all night or flatten on you, unless you roll over and create a new hollow for your head. Sleepers transitioning from feather pillows like the pillow’s ability to stay thin.

This pillow kit is sold with a quilted wool case to provide a cushion atop of the millet. The case can be gently hand washed (see Care tab). For those of you who like wool’s natural abilities to repel dust mites, you can know your millet pillow is keeping you comfortable and bite free. We do not include a liner with this pillow as the liner inhibits the free flowing movement of the hulls.

This quilted pillowcase uses wool sandwiched between two layers of GOTS organic cotton fabric.  The feel is almost exactly the same as our Quilted Ticking. The outer fabric is our smooth, soft double knit and the inner our sateen. One short side has a full length zipper. To eliminate the chance of the zipper coming open on its own and to silence the jingle of the zipper pull, we have hidden the pull inside a pocket to keep it secure.

This kit is not the same price as selecting the purchasing the same products separately. It is discounted here to account for its combined components. To buy more loose fill or to choose the standard inner or outer pillow cases, see our Pillow Parts page.

This kit does not come assembled.  To let you participate in the DIY aspect and to let you choose your amount of fill inside the case, we let you stuff the pillow yourself.

To compare the feel of millet hulls to our other pillow fills, see this chart.

Travel: 12″ x 20″ – 2.5 lb fill
Standard: 20″ x 26″ – 7.5 lb fill
Queen: 20″ x 30″ – 9 lb fill
King: 20″ x 36″ – 11.5 lb fill
Body: 20″ x 60″ – 21 lb fill
Custom: You name the size, we’ll sew it.

Organic Double Knit Cotton Fabric

Double Knit GOTS Organic Cotton Fabric Hanging Books
  • Sold by the 90″ yard
  • Flexible
  • Heavyweight, 485 GSM
  • Undyed
  • Shrinkage 12-15%
  • GOTS Organic

This double knit organic cotton fabric is soft and thick.  This is the fabric we use in our Knit and Expandable Ticking and our outer pillowcases. Latex purists, those who like to be completely absorbed by their latex mattress and have every pressure point relieved, swear by this fabric’s flexibility.

Our double knit cotton fabric can stretch. It has no rayon, latex or spandex in it, so it certainly won’t stretch and return to shape like some synthetic fabric will, but it has give. We tested it to give you some numbers.  A 12” x 12” piece was stretched both ways against a ruler. One direction easily stretched 2” wider and could have been pulled taut 2.5” wider than original. The other direction easily stretched 1.5” wider and could have been pulled taut at 2”.

The close up picture is to detail the three layers of fabric/threads used to construct a double knit fabric.  A little water spray in the middle helped reveal the crosswise threads running under the top layer of fabric. This triple layer of threads not only makes it heavy, it also gives it durability.

Using leather needles is not recommend on this fabric, standard needles will do just fine.

 

Wool Batting Wrap

Farm Wool
  • Lofty and Fluffy
  • US wool
  • Clean of chemicals and vegetation
  • 1/2″ thick sheet
  • Sold by the 88″ yard or the mattress wrap size

Wool batting is lofty and fluffy, perfect for your DIY bedding projects. It is soft wool in a long sheet. Because of wool’s hollow fiber, air transfers easily through, making wool both insulating and cooling as ambient air can not only pass around the fibers but also through them. If you want the warmth, sleep under the wool; if you want the fluffy feel, sleep on top of of it. Any way you use it will provide moisture wicking and temperature regulation. To read more about the properties of wool, see Wool’s Characteristics here.

The only substance used in its processing is a surfactant, which breaks the surface tension of the water, allowing the oily lanolin to float away in the washing water. Unlike conventional wool, our wool processing contains

  • NO bleach
  • NO acid bath
  • NO bonding
  • NO resin
  • NO carbonization
  • NO superwashing

You can also use it to make your own topper or comforter or quilt and even pillow.  Another great use for the wool batting is in mattress making. Wrap your latex layers inside your ticking to provide comfort and protection as in the video on our How It Works page, here. A wool wrap is the budget saving method for those who want the qualities of wool on their mattress, but want to purchase a less expensive, machine washable ticking, like our Knit Ticking, rather than the beautiful Quilted Ticking, which has wool quilted into it.

The wool batting you purchase here is either cut to your wrap your mattress size or cut to your requested yardage. Since each mattress size you select is a wrap, that means that you will have wool batting  to cover the top, the sides and the bottom of a 12″ mattress. In other words, the mattress size you select will provide you with two layers of wool. If a different amount of wool suits you, please select the option to purchase it by the yard.

As the batting is about 1/2″ thick, a wrap adds about 1″ height to your mattress. You can choose to add 1″ height to your ticking to let you feel the fluffiness of the wool or if you prefer the feel of the latex and merely want the protecting properties of the wool, then select ticking that is the height of your latex and zip that wool down tightly.

After compression, usually about 6 months, the wool batting will have compressed about 20%. Despite its compression, it will retain its comfort and insulating properties while losing its cloud-like, enveloping feel.

Crib: 1.9 yards
Twin \Twin XL: 2.4 yards
Full \ Full XL: 3.3 yards
Queen: 3.7 yards
CA King\Eastern King: 4.6 yards

The wool is 1.8lb per linear yard.

FAQ

If your question isn’t answered here or in the product guide section, feel free contact us.


Q. Do you offer curbside pickup?
Q. What is the average turn around on an order?
Q. What is your shipping policy?
Q. What is the lifespan of your parts?
Q. What is your warranty?
Q. What of these products do you make yourself?
Q. Tell me about your organic certificates.
Q. Your articles on wool suggest wool is a great fiber.  Why don’t you make your ticking out of wool fabric?
Q. When you say Chemical-Free bedding parts, what does that mean?
Q. Do you have any wholesale rates? Could you make our company a product for resale?

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Q. Do you offer curbside pickup?
A. Yes (In Person Pickup) and No (Curbside). You are welcome to come to our workroom/showroom in Brooklyn Park, MN to pickup up any sewn good such as ticking, and pillow kits, pillow fills and Fabrics. Please knock (door is always locked) and we will greet you and your items will be bagged and ready for you.

In Person pickups must be scheduled.

  1. Let us know that you want to pickup in the Order Notes box on the Checkout page.
  2. You will receive an email when your product is ready.
  3. Schedule a time to pickup. Address is 7600 Boone Ave. Suite 80, Brooklyn Park, MN 55428
  4. Any shipping charges you may have paid will be refunded when your items are picked up.

Q. What is the average turn around on an order?
A. 1-4 weeks, depending on what you order. Pillow Kits and loose fills generally ship out within a week of ordering date. Natural Latex slabs and sewn pieces like ticking ship around the two week mark. Custom work can take up to 4 weeks to ship.  Please keep in mind, while we often keep these timetables, these estimates are just generalities. If your product has not arrived by the hopeful date, it is still coming and has not been forgotten.

Q. What is your shipping policy?
A. Our items process for up to 3 weeks and then ship out.
Flat rate, shared shipping is available to continental US customers.  Canadian and other international customers will need to contact us with an address to get a shipping estimate.

Shared shipping means that some of the shipping costs we will share with you as you probably don’t want to pay $70 shipping per piece of natural latex coming your way.

Click here to see the chart with the flat rate shipping charged per item.

Items may ship from different locations.  This means that multiple items may arrive at your house at different times and with individual tracking numbers.  An email will be sent your way with a tracking number as soon the shipment is processed.

Q. What is the lifespan of your parts?
A. To read in depth about any of our parts, visit the Of Interest. However, in brief here are the stats:

  • Natural Latex – 20-30 years
  • Wool – forever, until the moths eat it. It may want to be relofted every 8 years or so.
  • Shredded Natural Latex – 15 years. It will slowly harden, but won’t crumble much.
  • Millet Hulls – Quite a while. The best grades of hulls are shipped overseas, so while there are some that never break down, I think it would be safe to say 5 years or more.
  • Kapok Fiber – After 1 year of use, the fibers in a pillow will turn into smallish balls, a little larger than wooly bolas.  This is why we include more fill in the pillow kits than you will initially need. Otherwise, they have no limit to their lifespan.

Q. What is your warranty?
A. To read it in depth, visit our Warranty link at the bottom of the page.  In brief:

  • Natural Latex – 15 years
  • Sewing Work – 5 years

Q. What of these products do you make yourself?
A. We sew all our fabric goods including tickings, pillow liners and cases and any custom jobs you send our way.

Q. Tell me about your organic certificates.
A. In our shop, organic is certified organic. We are terribly honest and do not declare something organic if it is not. We also believe in the natural goodness of plants and animals so we offer some products that are simply natural such as our small farm wool and our kapok pillow fill. By the way, despite what you see on Amazon, there is no one who produces organic kapok for sale by the lb. It all is natural.

Whether fabric or latex, the certification certifies that the product and the warehouse are certified at the time that we bought the product. They are actually transaction certifications, ceritfying the purchase date, rather than the life of the product. Certifications are required to be renewed for every new product run and fairly often we haven’t sold out of our current product before the certificate expires. The product remains as organic as it was when we bought it even if its manufacturer’s certificate has moved on to the next batch and we haven’t posted the new certificate because we haven’t restocked the product. While we will keep updating the certificates, do note that our product is certified even when our supply room is waiting for new stock.

See our certifications below.

Q. Your articles on wool suggest wool is a great fiber.  Why don’t you make your ticking out of wool fabric?
A. Wool is an excellent and very versatile fiber.  If you know of a source for 90″ wool fabric who is willing to talk about where their wool comes from, let us know and we’ll get sewing.

Q. When you say Chemical-Free bedding parts, what does that mean?
A. “Chemical-Free” means three things:

  • No chemicals have been used in the growing or processing of the materials (i.e. wool, cotton).
  • Every chemical we can choose to leave out of the processing of our products we do. Natural latex does require chemicals to create the foam; however in the end, natural latex is 96% rubber and most of the chemicals are burned up.
  • In the emission tests performed by OekoTex (on the latex and cotton) nothing of worthy consideration shows up.

Q. Do you have any wholesale rates? Could you make our company a product for resale?
A. Yes, most definitely. Please see our wholesale page for a full list of service offered.

About

We are a bedding parts supplier. We are here to enable you to make your own chemical free, natural bedding, be it pillows, mattresses, blankets, comforters, etc.

Natural latex from Sri Lanka, wool from local farms and GOTS organic ticking could make your mattress. Kapok fiber, shredded natural latex, or millet hulls could fill your pillows.

We specialize in custom work, in natural products and in educating ourselves and you about our products.

We have all the firmnesses of natural latex available for you to rearrange to find the perfect comfort in our showroom, as well as samples of all our offerings. It is often helpful to lay on one to determine what firmness and comfort level is right for you before you purchase the foam or the pillow fills.

OUR STORY:

We needed to buy mattresses. Two of them. As this event doesn’t come around very often, we thought: “Let’s do it right. Let’s get the very best mattress we can.”

For us, very best meant no chemical flame retardants and no synthetic fabrics. These mattresses were for our two girls, ages 2 and 4 at the time. They were going to be stuck with these mattresses for a while so we wanted to get them ones that weren’t going to combine comfort with slowly decomposing their organs.  A little internet research soon deflated my excitement over the purchase. An organic twin mattress was $1400. Even the cheapest one we could find, an all wool 4″ futon mattress, was $400. We didn’t have that kind of money, especially not with a third child on the way.  Further internet research led me down the same trails. I was stumped.

Then I asked myself, could we make a mattress? That is what we do, after all; we like to make things, from scratch, especially in the kitchen.  Picking ingredients deliberately can make a great tasting dish and bring out subtle flavor, so also, deliberately sourcing bedding materials could make a comfortable and chemical free mattress. “If it can be bought, I can make it,” I’ve always said. Perhaps we could make a mattress.

First we had to find our supplies. At the time in 2010, I found only one online post of anyone else making their own mattress, so I felt I was breaking new ground. What to use?

Cotton is natural, but getting cotton batting, while inexpensive in individual sheets, would end up being expensive if we purchased enough to fill a mattress. It would be heavy and it would compress quickly, lending itself uncomfortable. Plus, we would have to shake it out weekly to get rid of dust mites. Phew, that’s too many things against cotton batting.

Wool was an accessible batting. Surely we could use sheets of wool which was loftier than cotton. But how much? Who knew. And how high would it be? Wool does compress over time, so how high would it end up being?

Enter natural latex. Made from the rubber tree, it boasts of being buoyant and luxurious enough to be sold as mattress toppers. The real seller for us was that we could pick the height and have a better guess at the height of the mattress, while still using natural products not treated with chemicals.

So, with two cotton futon covers that we purchased, we bought 2 batts of wool comforter batting and 1.5″ of natural latex for each mattress. It was still a lot of money for us to come up with, $212 for each mattress, but it was not $1400 or even $400 each. We wrapped the latex with the two batts of wool and zippered it in the cases. The mattress were quite lofty, though with that much wool, they did compress over a year from 4″ to 3″. When the girls were older (4 & 6), we opened their mattresses and added in an extra 1.5″ of latex to support their growing sizes.

While the cases were completely washable (and very shrinkable), to save ourselves the hassle of taking them off, we bought a couple of wool blankets at the thrift store. After the blankets were felted in the washing machine a few times, they thickened up quite nicely, to almost 1″ thick. Now we have puddle pads.

And there you have it. You can make a mattress, a puddle pad, a wool blanket yourself. If you can sew, you can make your own ticking and quilts and pillow cases and, well, check out the Community tab for ideas.  If you don’t want to, let us make them for you.