Bloom Muslin Bibs

Details

Dribble bibs for the teething months and the early feeding months. Four layers of cotton muslin, stitched and overlocked, with no film behind them. A bib is a textile that spends its whole life wet and in a mouth, so it is tested as a textile and it is tested for saliva. Colourfastness to saliva has an actual method, DIN 53160-1, and this dye grades 5 on it, which is no transfer at all. Perspiration, washing and rubbing fastness are on the same report. Formaldehyde is below 16 mg per kg by ISO 14184-1, the level set for articles for babies under three, against 75 mg per kg that is allowed on adult skin-contact wear. Restricted aromatic amines from azo colourants are below 20 mg per kg. Two cheats live in this category. The first is the plastic backing: a bib sold as cotton with a polyurethane or PVC film laminated behind it, so what is against the chest all day is cotton and what is behind it is a sheet of plastic that never dries and eventually smells. There is none here. The second is the word bamboo. Viscose made from bamboo is a chemically regenerated fibre, the bamboo is dissolved and re-spun, and the finished cloth has none of the properties the word is meant to suggest. This is cotton, confirmed by ISO 1833. The sewing thread is polyester. Cotton thread does not survive an overlock on four layers of loose weave, and a seam that opens on a mouthed article is worse than a thread that is not cotton. It is 2 percent of the bib by weight and we would rather print it than round it away.

• Four layers of plain-woven cotton muslin at 55 GSM each, 220 GSM total, measured to ISO 3801
• 30 cm x 22 cm, weighing 14.5 g dry and holding about 65 g of fluid, which is four and a half times its own weight
• Wetting time under 2 seconds by AATCC 79, measured after one wash
• No polyurethane film, no PVC, no plastic backing of any kind
• Two nickel-free press studs, nickel release below 0.5 microgram per square centimetre per week to EN 1811, each stud pull-tested to 70 N so it cannot come off and be swallowed
• Saliva fastness DIN 53160-1 grade 5, perspiration ISO 105-E04 grade 4 to 5, washing ISO 105-C06 grade 4 to 5
• Formaldehyde below 16 mg per kg, azo amines below 20 mg per kg, no optical brighteners under UV
• Pre-washed, so residual shrinkage is under 3 percent after three washes at 60 C, ISO 6330 measured to ISO 5077
• Honest trade-off, and it is the whole decision: four layers of muslin are not waterproof. A properly soaked bib will wet the shirt underneath. A PUL-backed bib keeps the shirt dry and holds a plastic film against your baby's chest for the whole day. We picked the one that gets wet
• Honest trade-off, second: muslin straight off the roll repels water, because of the sizing on the yarn. Wash it once before you use it and the absorbency roughly doubles. This is not a defect and no amount of squeezing at the shop will show it to you
• Machine wash up to 60 C with the rest of the baby laundry. No fabric conditioner, which coats the fibre and is the fastest way to make an absorbent cloth stop absorbing