My concerns are the chemicals and perfumes, which they soak into our clothes (and then into our skin).

Take into account the way our skin works, what touches our skin can end up inside our blood stream (like nicotine/birth control patches).

Having head to toe fabric softener patches would not be such a good idea.

Try the dryer balls that tumble around and massage the fabric with little fingers and soften the fabric (the same way the factory does to turn raw cotton into soft wearable material).