In keeping with the mission of our "little company" to provide the safest and most sustainable pillows possible, we have after much deliberation, decided to permanently phase out our woven percales and devote our entire line to the 100% Organic Cotton Jersey Knit.
There are several reasons for this, most significantly being the high volume of water, energy and chemicals required to grow and process cotton woven fabrics. The woven percales we've used, although made from USA grown cotton, were never organically grown and therefore inherently used more water irrigation and harsher pesticides than our USDA Certified Organic Cotton grown using low-water and more natural methods. Additionally, the process of turning cotton into a woven fabric involves several stages of additional high water processing vs the low-input knitting of minimally processed USA organic.
Now we know that this decision means that we are "limiting" ourselves to a traditionally unconventional material for pillow, i.e. jersey knit, and this may turn off some potential and past customers. However, we are so completely convinced of the superiority of this knit fabric to make a blissfully comfortable pillow while at the same time protecting our health and the health of our dear planet earth that we have faith our customers will embrace it too. And for the record, the majority of our customers choosing it are loving it more than the traditional woven! It's soft, springy and super breathable. What's not to love?
Ok, so for some full disclosure. Amongst the small percentage (usually adults) who still prefer the stiffer feel of a woven fabric over the more stretchy knit, we have found a solution to that: use a woven (preferably white or natural/undyed) percale pillowcase on the pillow. This will inhibit the extra "squish" of the knit and create the same feel as if the pillow were made from a percale. But again, this is a solution for that small minority of users. We (the owners) personally adore the feel of the knit pillow and pillowcases and would never go back....even if the other woven negatives were removed. And of course, given that our pillow lofts are adjustable, adding more fill can also create a stiffer, fuller feel in lieu of a woven pillowcase.
For those who simply cannot make the switch away from a woven, we do plan to keep our "CSF-Customer Supplied Fabric" option available, which means you can ship us fabric of your own selection and we will turn that into a pillow or case. If this is something you see yourself being interested in, simply email us and we can share more how that works.
On a final note: we have added a new Bright White option to our pillowcases in the same Texas-Grown organic knit. This has been bleached/lightened with a safe hydrogen peroxide only.
If any of you has any questions about these new changes, please feel free to reach out to us at sales@alittlepillowcompany.com, or simply fill out the contact form in the link above.
Here's to a cleaner, healthier and more restful 2024!
Heather & Loyd McCoy, owners
A Little Pillow Company