Bed Sheet and Its Brief History

A bed sheet was not necessarily the thing of beauty it has become today with the wonderful variety of fabrics, colors and designs to choose from. A bed sheet might be a simple square of flannel in a plain color, and rather than being washable, it might simply be aired out or hung on the clothesline periodically. The more wealthy people tended to choose bed sheets of more closely woven fabrics, and Egyptian cotton bed sheets were chosen as well as the more exotic bed sheets of silk or satin. Among the more wealthy people, washing the bed sheets became more common, so durability was important. Egyptian cotton bed sheets were more able to stand up to laundering and became the bed covering of choice.

As technology advanced and more manmade fabrics became available, brighter colors and more variety in the composition of the sheets became common. Matching sets of comforters bed sheets and pillow coverings were novelty items at first, then almost must-haves. Sofa bed sheets and comforters bed sheets became commonplace Christmas and wedding gifts. The bed coverings could be matched to the room décor and the colors of the carpet to create a unified look.With the availability of shopping online, you can certainly choose bed sheets which match or contrast with any color style or décor you can imagine. The bed sheets can truly make the bed the focal point of the room, and it's not necessary to spend a fortune to outfit your bed to suit your likes and dislikes.

Other Factors You Might Consider

Buying sheets is not as easy as it used to be or should be. There’s such a wide variety of styles, colours and fabrics to choose from. You may go to a store wanting plain white cotton sheets but end up so confused because you have so many different types of cotton, that you may go home with the wrong one (in most cases) or end up buying something you don’t want.

The amount of time you’ll find yourself spending in trying to choose the right type of bed sheet can be VERY frustrating and buying online makes this process even harder because you can’t FEEL how soft/rough the fabric is. Frankly speaking, most people would rather spend that valuable time doing something else.

Well, here are a few pointers you should keep in mind when you want to buy sheets for your bed or anybody else’s bed for that matter. These are just a few simple ‘rules of thumb’ for selecting the right sheets. Once you understand these, there’s no reason why you should not be able to choose the best sheets for yourself, your family and guests each and every time. You can literally order online as though you went to the store in person.

So here we go…in order of importance, here's what you should look for when shopping for sheets:

1. The Weave

The very first thing to consider when buying ANY type of bed linen is the weave.
Simply put, the weave describes the way the individual fibers of the fabric have been woven or twisted together when the fabric was being made.

For example, if the fibers have been twisted together very tightly, then you get a sturdy fabric, but if the fibers were twisted together loosely, then you get quite a flimsy type fabric.
So in other words, the weave of the fabric will determine how crisp, smooth, wrinkly (especially after wash), cool (on the skin), soft, warm, clingy, durable and even how shiny your sheets will be.

2. Thread Count

The next thing to consider when shopping for sheets, after the weave, is the thread count.
The thread count is the number of threads woven into one square inch of fabric and can range from 180 to over 2000 threads per square inch. The higher the thread count, the softer the fabric.

When shopping for a sheets look for thread counts of between 200 – 250 as a bare minimum. The higher this figure gets, the more luxurious the bed linen!

Sheet prices are based on the thread count. The higher the thread count the more expensive the sheet will be.