Make a mattress with compressed stuffing - PEP BB textiles.iron.mattress

Opalyn Rose wrote:This is a badge bit (BB) that is part of the PEP curriculum.  Completing this BB is part of getting the wood badge in Textiles.


Handmade Buckwheat Hull Mattress

The mattress I made was a US Queen Mattress 60" X 80" at 5 1/2" thick but making a Twin is as easy as leaving off 2 columns of pods.

The beauty of this mattress is that is is modular.  This means if you want a smaller or larger mattress you don't need to get a new one.  Simply add or remove pods from your existing mattress.  Your childhood Twin bed can grow to a Full in college, a Queen when you get married and a King for when you grow your family.  The mattress can easily be disassembled and emptied and the ticking is machine washable.  You can easily replace a pod or two if you happen to spill something on your mattress.



Materials: Organic 100% cotton tubular fabric + organic non-roasted fully dusted buckwheat hulls.

Tools I used:  Pinking shear (scissors) and one large bin and one small bin (shoebox size).  Sharpie marker

To make my mattress cover I cut the tubular fabric into 46 pieces, each 6 foot in length.

To prepare my fillings I weighed out 5 lbs and placed them in a medium size clear bin.  I shook them level and marked a "to fill line" in sharpie right on the bin.



I filled 40 of the tubes each with 5lbs of buckwheat hulls, shook the hulls to the center and tied a knot on the bottom of the "pod"





Once all my pods were made I laid them out in a grid 5 across and 8 down.

Then I used the remaining straps to connect my pods, weaving the straps in an alternating pattern between pods in each row:



I have put up more detailed assembly instructions here:  https://openyoureyesbedding.com/pages/new-twist-mattress-assembly-guide

Many people all over the world now sleep on my mattress design!  The mattress is different than a convention mattress.  It is firm but very conforming as the hulls shift and contour to your body as you sleep.  The key is not to put anything between you and the mattress other than a bottom sheet.  Layering anything over the mattress blocks the contouring effect.   One must maintain the mattress as hulls break down (slowly) and the debris ends up under the pods which can be easily managed by vacuuming up the hull bits every so often.