Notes from the Spring Creek Arts Guild

Fiber Snobbery

One of the many interest groups I belong to on Facebook is The Great British Sewing Bee, which is a fan group of a television show by the same name. I have only ever watched two or three episodes of the show, as it is not the easiest show to find here, but I love the group and their posts. Among the older, mostly women, on the group, there is much reminiscing about how things were when they were younger. Some of them were children during The Blitz in London and have memories of the years after the war. One of the stories recently was of a time when bedsheets were made of nylon. One woman said that the static was so bad between the wool blanket and the nylon sheet, if you moved, there would be lots of big sparks! But she said her mother loved them because they were easier to wash and then dried quickly in front of their coal heater.

I cannot even imagine how horrible those nylon sheets must have felt against a child’s skin—keep in mind they did not have “microfiber” in those days. I have noticed in the past 10 years, more and more polyester microfiber sheets. I know some people love them, for what reason I do not understand. I have slept on them in hotels, and I know hotels love them for the same reason the British mother did—they compact down so lots of them go in the same wash load and they dry lightening-quick, so the hotel gets to say they are using “green” bedding, despite that fact that polyester is really a petrochemical-based plastic. I actively avoid any hotel chain that I learn uses microfiber polyester sheets—I hate them. I hate them especially if they have been washed in with towels, because they form pills that really cannot be removed, and that makes it feel like sleeping on fine-grit sandpaper.

Yes, I am a fiber snob. A little well-placed polyester, nylon, or acrylic can be a good thing, but I tend to actively steer around garments made entirely out of synthetics as much as possible. One reason is that those synthetics do not breathe and trap moisture against the skin. Even the “wicking” athletic clothes tend to trap moisture and odor. Most synthetics are oleophilic, which means they trap and hold onto oils, including the oils our body produces. A build up of body oils is hard to wash out of a fabric and builds up even more over time. This causes a smell that is nigh unto impossible to wash away. That’s why things like sports uniforms develop a permanent funk.

These days, polyester, nylon, and acrylic are far cheaper and more readily available than any natural fiber clothing. It takes some work to find natural fiber clothing, and it helps a lot if you know how to make your own. But if you can find them and care for them carefully, they will last for years. I am wearing things that I have had for 20-plus years.

I will wrap this up for now, but will continue this train of thought. Please feel free to provide feedback in the meantime: SpringCreekArtsGuild@gmail.com.