Usage of cotton

I know for sure that cotton can describe objects such as cotton clothes, cotton field, or cotton seed. However, I have a few questions.

1: Can cotton refer to the soft, gathered, and fluffy state of cotton such as cotton of comforters, the infill ?

2: Can cotton refer to the general idea of something soft, gathered, white, and fluffy, but not necessary to be cotton? For example, the nylon infill in a comforter.

Solution 1:

Cotton used for filling or lining quilts is called batting or (more precisely) cotton batting. From Merriam-Webster's Eleventh Collegiate Dictionary (2003):

batting n ... 2 : layers or sheets of raw cotton or wool or of synthetic fibrous material used for lining quilts or for stuffing or packaging; ...

As that definition indicates, you can use batting (but not cotton batting) to refer to non-cotton infill of the types you describe.

Solution 2:

1: Sure, if it's cotton, you can call it cotton.

2: No, if it's not cotton, you ought not to call it cotton, unless perhaps you mean to be metaphoric ("The cotton of the clouds billowed up in the East"). Perhaps you could say it's cottony, or cotton-like.