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| Advice for Shopping for Bed Linens |
By:
Liz Foster |
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Selecting sheets and duvet covers can be difficult these days with so many possibilities in the marketplace. It's good to take into account the following factors to help make your choice: softness, crispness, luster, weight and price. Softness is probably the most sought after selling point in sheets. Softness mostly relates to fiber content and weave. Generally high quality long staple cottons, silk, and bamboo and micro modal (the latter two are both types of rayon) are the softest. Many customers are partial to Egyptian cotton sheets for their famous softness. Other types of premium long staple cottons are: Pima, Supima and Sea Island. In addition, sateen weaves tend to be softer than percale weaves because of the layout of the threads in the warp and weft of the weave's construction. Some customers love a crisp feeling; you will find this with percale weaves (also called plain weave). Percale sheets have an old fashioned feel to them and tend to feel cooler than sateen. Percale also wears very well and resists pilling. For luster, the ultimate option would be silk charmeuse! Silk charmeuse is silk woven in a sateen weave which makes one side highly lustrous and smooth whereas the back side is matte. Silk is absolutely the ultimate for luster. However cotton sheets can similarly be lustrous. Using the same type of weave that creates charmeuse for silk, sateen weaves for cotton can create a lustrous sheet as well. Cotton sateen weaves made with fine yarns and excellent finishing can achieve luster. The luster tends to wane with washing (this is because washing and drying acts to puff up the miniscule fibers that are part of each yarn in the weave); but luster can be restored by ironing. Some customers are concerned with the weight of their bedding, either thick or thin or somewhere in between. Weight is mostly related to thread count and yarn size. When you put more threads per square inch you expect more weight, and this is generally true. However, higher thread count sheets made with very high yarn size can feel much lighter than expected, due to super fine yarns being used in the weave. (note: yarn size refers to the thickness of the yarns. the higher the yarn size, the finer the yarn. for example 60s yarns are thicker than 100s yarns.) Price is a very practical metric when it comes to sheets and most people have an idea of what they feel is feasible to spend. Bedding prices vary wildly among different brands, styles and thread counts. Keep in mind that it is not necessary to spend a small fortune on sheets, in many cases you are paying a premium for a brand name or for having European-made products. These are admirable but not compulsory if you are on a budget!
Liz Foster is a buyer for Echelon, a New York city based company specializing in sheets and duvet covers in modern print designs and solids. Wholesale linens are available to trade accounts also.
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