Wadding the paper works better becuase it creates more depth to the layer, and thus more air space.
Oh, and Susan, have you tried to fill even a small garbage bag with cattail fuzz? It's gonna take a lot of them, and the performance will be like the cheap "down" that is half regular feathers- compress it and you've got nothing. Not to mention it is a bit more flammable than anything you probably want to be sitting on.