Jelly roll burn test for fiber content-not 100% cotton

I had my suspicions while sewing with a jelly roll that I bought off of Amazon, a no name brand printed in China, which is not to say that nothing good comes out of China. I’m just being specific, that what I had purchased was not cotton. The way it felt, and the way it sewed, were different from every other Jelly Roll I’ve ever worked with. A few years back, I purchased a second set of sheets from Peacock Alley. The exact same set of sheets, but one year later. The thickness and texture were completely different. I contacted the company and explained that the most recent set of sheets I had purchased were considerably lighter, and very nearly sheer when compared to the exact same sheets, I purchased a year earlier for the same price. After a lot of back-and-forth someone higher up in the company told me that they had changed mills. In the interim, I had read up on how to verify fiber content in textiles. I returned those sheets, but today while I was sewing this flimsy, I remembered the research I had done on fiber content. So I decided an experiment was in order.

The Jelly Roll I bought off of Amazon was half the price and was a no name brand. I didn’t expect it to be the kind of jellyroll I would buy in terms of quality at a quilt shop. But I also didn’t expect that it would be polyester. And I suppose I am guessing about the percentage of polyester content, but you’ll see from the residue during the first part of the video that something is melting. I just assume it’s polyester but I know it’s not cotton.

I thought I would share this information so that people could make an informed decision when purchasing no name Fabrics online. This is only one jelly roll off of Amazon and so of course it is not a statistically valid sample size or an empirically conclusive test. but it is a heads up, and I do think that as with most things you most often get what you pay for. Luckily for me, the flimsy I am making is only for practice and will ultimately be donated to a cat rescue. They always need towels and blankets. I hope this helps somebody make the right choice for their project.