illinois

This turned into a discussion of costume fabrics, which is fine especially now that Halloween is upon us. But my confusion was why is cotton, not synthetics, recommended for quilts but not in costumes? Perhaps prism had the answer. Anyhow, fabric of any origin will burn so caution is always due. Another caution is keeping fabric a safe distance from space heaters now that they may be called into service with colder weather.

carolynjo

Strange reversal of ideas. Years ago the airlines recommended that people wear cotton clothing because, if a crash occurred and flames erupted, the cotton would not melt and stick to one's skin like polyester, etc., would. I thought cotton would turn to ash, not balls of searing liquid which could not be brushed off. Now I don't know what to think.

yobrosew

The typos were not noticed; excellent comment and very informative, answering the original question about cotton quilts. Thanks for making a distinction for us between the sample burn test and a quilt.

yobrosew

I would imagine someone with cotton clothing could roll around the ground trying to put out the flames but someone trying to that in synthetic would put the fire out but the hot liquid is gonna still be at burn level and stuck to the skin. Agree, think Prism had the answer. We put an old quilt in the burn pile once. It ended up smoldering and big chunks of quilt (cotton) were left after all the garbage was burned. We had to tear/cut into smaller pieces and place amongst the next batch of garbage to be burne in order for it to actually flame up and burn.

Prism99

It's the single layer of cotton fabric that turns into a fireball within seconds -- because air feeds the flame from both sides of the thin fabric. On the mannequin test, the nightgown went up so fast that there would be no opportunity to drop and roll before the entire body -- including face and hair -- would be on fire. It took about one second. The demo was to show that even an adult standing nearby would not have a chance to put out the fire before the child was severely burned.

As someone else mentioned, a cotton quilt is thick. It will burn and turn to ash, but slowly with a lot of smoldering on the way. This provides plenty of time to move the quilt off a child or move the child away from the quilt.

On the mannequin test, when the flame was touched to the bottom of the synthetic nightgown, little balls of melted poly formed. The fabric melted slowly. This gives a nearby adult time to take some action -- such as holding the fabric away from the flame, ripping the costume off the child, etc. This is because there was no fireball whooshing up from the flame. The demonstrators were careful to explain, though, that those melted balls of synthetic could quickly cause 3rd degree burns because they were so hot and because they were so sticky. The thing is, there's a much better chance of surviving multiple spots of 3rd degree burns than it is to survive 2nd degree burns over 90% of the body.

Hope that clarifies.

cathyvv

Perhaps the non-cotton costumes are treated with flame retardant.

Melted fabric that clings to the skin will burn the skin until it (the fabric) cools down. The bottom line is that there is no 100% safe fabric.

I do agree with the caution on flowing costumes. It can get caught in machinery, car doors, or hung up on nails, bicycle chains and so on.

Jingle

I don't dress up and no kids young enough for it either. Been thirty years or more since I had trick or treaters in my home. Being a bum or hobo costume is very simple.