View Full Version : Sheets
gimmethesimplelife
1-9-21, 11:37am
Here's something that has perplexed me for some time - why are sheets so expensive? I'm lucky in that a few miles north of me there is.a Nordstrom"s Last Chance - crossing fingers their Last Chance arm survives covid -"with truly quality bedding outside the store in bargain bins.
Without Last Chance, new bedding is to me anyway insanely overpriced. Rob
What is your definition of quality?
early morning
1-9-21, 12:13pm
Well, I USED to haunt a localish group of thrift stores on all holidays, when everything is 50% off. I've had really good luck finding deep pocket, high-thread count sheets. Pillowcases are easy to pick up at yard sales etc. I am obviously not too concerned with color or pattern, I don't buy things I consider butt-ugly but otherwise.... However, DD swears by IKEA sheets, and I think they are pretty inexpensive, comparatively.
Teacher Terry
1-9-21, 12:14pm
In the past sheets lasted forever. Now if you buy cheap sheets they rip and get pills on them. I buy good sheets on sale.
ToomuchStuff
1-9-21, 1:08pm
In the past, mattresses weren't as tall as they are now. (wondering how much tension expands with mattress height). When we were kids, sheets were from Kmart, Venture, etc. while our parents/grandparents, had nicer sheets, that tended to be bought during things like January white sales.
I expect my old sheets, won't fit the next mattress, due to size (both bed size and height).
Seems like anything made of 100% cotton or other natural fibers has gotten very expensive. I mistakenly bought some microfiber sheets a while back because they were lower priced and I hate them. I finally bought some Supima cotton sheets from Macy's but they seem awfully thin. Still debating whether to take them back before washing/using.
I had some vintage 100% cotton sheets I’d been given a while back that finally wore out. I find jersey sheets, a t-shirt like material to be good. I hate scratchy sheets and these are nice and soft. Warmer in the winter without being too hot like flannel. Got mine off Amazon for about $45 for a double bed size set.
I get all of my sheets from "Sin in Linen", https://www.sininlinen.com/ , and they have been of decent quality, have great designs, and if you hold off for their sales, not insanely priced.
ApatheticNoMore
1-9-21, 2:20pm
I don't think one needs high thread count, in fact in a climate that is more often warm than cold it's better not to, as lower thread count sheets run cooler though possibly less durable. That said my sheets are all cotton and were pricey, but not all super high thread count.
300 or less count sheets do get pilly very quickly or did years ago before I chose polyester and cotton sheets of higher counts and they last forever. For my bed I have fleece sheets for winter and the polyester for summer. I did buy Ikea cotton sheets for the single spare beds and they are very wrinkly. I was given by family some unwanted polyester sheets for the other two queen beds. I won't be buying sheets for a long time.
I did see a promo for bamboo sheets at one point and was told that they were wonderfully soft. I wondered what the current info about bamboo stated. Here is one article to consider with lots of additional info as well. https://www.verolinens.com/how-long-do-bed-sheets-last/
Last sheets I bought were from Target and they were for the kids going to college - had to be extra-long twins to fit the dorm room beds. I am a use-it-until-it-dies person with most everything, so the sheets on my bed are about 20+ years old. No rips or tears, still usable. :)
ApatheticNoMore
1-9-21, 3:18pm
The sheets I use most often are low 200 something thread count, they aren't pilly and I've had them for years, but like I said they weren't cheap, so don't qualify as bedding that isn't insanely over priced. I think cheap sheets might just be cheap quality maybe. The only durability issue is I think they might develop holes sooner than higher thread count? But that's my experience with lower thread count which I prefer.
early morning
1-9-21, 5:11pm
Oh gee thanks bae. :~) Now I've gone and ordered a shower curtain I didn't absolutely have to have!
Sheets are something I don't spend a lot of money on. No real reason, except I just don't see the value in spending $20 v $200. I have bought sheets in Kohl's and Target and my favorite, Marshall's/Home Goods.
BIL worked at ABC Carpet in Manhattan for a few years, and he would talk about all the celebrities coming in and spending $2000 for 1,000,000 Egyptian cotton thread count sheets (an exaggeration of course), and sheets are truly one of those things that if I had a few million drop in my lap, I still wouldn't spend $2000 on a set of sheets.
So, I'm with you, Rob. Give me a close-out price any day.
But I do love the name of sininlinen. Great marketing and the sheets look really nice.
After many years of Target category of bargain sheets, a couple of years ago I splurged on a set of Parachute Pima cotton sheets. No regrets. I suspect quality sheets can be had for less, but they are more comfortable for me relative to the non-descript Target types I've had.
I am a sucker for nice bedding, and I get most of my sheets from LL Bean (love the flannel) and Cuddledown of Maine (cotton sateen). I also need jersey sheets for the "shoulder" seasons. I don't think I can claim to be very simple in my bedding requirements, but I'm OK with that.
Oh gee thanks bae. :~) Now I've gone and ordered a shower curtain I didn't absolutely have to have!
A local lady does all the art design for that brand, and I think the stuff is adorable.
early morning
1-11-21, 12:17am
OH, wow, bae, that is cool! I love the designs, especially the bats - so William Morris, but.... bats!!!
iris lilies
1-11-21, 11:25am
I don’t know how to respond to the question of why sheets are so expensive. I’m not sure that they are necessarily. It depends.
I read somewhere that thread count doesn’t define quality. That is a consumer chestnut has sold to the public. The types of fiber, the length of fiber – those make a difference if we’re talking about cotton.
In recent years I’ve bought different kinds of sheets, branching out. Back in my frugal days I used to hang onto them and even took in used sheets from my friends when they were throwing them out. Yeah I don’t do that anymore, I’m past that stage.
So in the past few years I have purchased the following:
1. Sheets made out of that T-shirt type of material that TRADD talks about. They are pleasant. They were not cheap but they were not expensive either.
2. Sheet set for $169.99 They are “Pima cotton “ but the main feature is they have sturdy elastic straps on all four corners so that the sheets don’t ride up.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MXQVMMM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I like the second set so well that I purchased another set for our Hermann house.
3. Sheets set from IKEA. They were cheap. I did like the sheets because they have a nostalgic feel, they feel like my mom’s sheets from the 1960s. But they didn’t last long, things from IKEA are junk. They ripped, and I’ve never had sheets rip before.
4. Antique flat sheet with Appenzeller embroidery. I’ve been wanting an old European bedsheet for quite a while and this one came up on eBay. It’s beautiful and I’m not sure of the fabric. It may be probably is a weave of cotton that’s not especially smooth. The seller didn’t think it was linen. I trust her because she deals in antique linens. It is beautifully laundered and ironed. I fear that when I actually use it and wash it it’ll get wrinkly. But we shall see it’s very beautiful.
Teacher Terry
1-11-21, 12:00pm
I really like the microfiber sheets.
I used to buy percale sheets on sale at a department store. I loved them and they lasted a good while. Then bought from Lands End- they lasted forever, but the next purchased Queen flat sheet was reduced in size so now I buy a King top sheet and queen flat. We have 2 sets of cotton and 2 sets of flannel for our bed. I made linen pillowcases for me and the others are smooth cotton from a linens outlet. Last time I bought a cotton fitted sheet ( the 10 year old one was thin) from Vermont Country Store. It is wonderful. None of them are cheap in price, but we sleep every night....so good value for us and they feel good!
4. Antique flat sheet with Appenzeller embroidery. I’ve been wanting an old European bedsheet for quite a while and this one came up on eBay. It’s beautiful and I’m not sure of the fabric. It may be probably is a weave of cotton that’s not especially smooth. The seller didn’t think it was linen. I trust her because she deals in antique linens. It is beautifully laundered and ironed. I fear that when I actually use it and wash it it’ll get wrinkly. But we shall see it’s very beautiful.
I'll be interested in how they wash up and feel on the bed,Iris Lilies.
iris lilies
1-11-21, 1:52pm
4. Antique flat sheet with Appenzeller embroidery. I’ve been wanting an old European bedsheet for quite a while and this one came up on eBay. It’s beautiful and I’m not sure of the fabric. It may be probably is a weave of cotton that’s not especially smooth. The seller didn’t think it was linen. I trust her because she deals in antique linens. It is beautifully laundered and ironed. I fear that when I actually use it and wash it it’ll get wrinkly. But we shall see it’s very beautiful.
I'll be interested in how they wash up and feel on the bed,Iris Lilies.
I probably won’t have an answer for you for a year. I plan to drape it on my day bed in my condo. But yeah I wonder if it will be wrinkly beyond use or if it will just be normal wrinkled which I will accept.
I'm curious, does anyone here starch their pillowcases in the summer? When I was a kid my mother used to do this, but she stopped doing mine after I complained. She was shocked because she thought the crispness felt cooler. I just thought they were scratchy.
I'm curious, does anyone here starch their pillowcases in the summer? When I was a kid my mother used to do this, but she stopped doing mine after I complained. She was shocked because she thought the crispness felt cooler. I just thought they were scratchy.
I slept in a dormer bedroom in a small Cape Cod with no AC and I did put pillowcases in the freezer and take them out before I went to bed sometimes, but I never ironed them for crispy coolness. Interesting.
rosarugosa
1-11-21, 5:25pm
OH, wow, bae, that is cool! I love the designs, especially the bats - so William Morris, but.... bats!!!
I know! I think I might need a set of the blue and white sheets with bats! :)
OH, wow, bae, that is cool! I love the designs, especially the bats - so William Morris, but.... bats!!!
My house is mostly furnished with Craftsman furniture/art, so the Morris-inspired designs really work well for me, especially those bats! The mid-century-modern patterns are also silly fun.
I use LL Bean's Pima Cotton Percale sheets for the summer and they are very smooth and cool. So far very durable too. My winter duvet cover is LL Bean flannel, and it's stayed nice longer than cheaper flannels. I'll be buying a flat sheet to match that soon (for my Japanese shikifuton mat that I use as my bed).
I use LL Bean's Pima Cotton Percale sheets for the summer and they are very smooth and cool. So far very durable too. My winter duvet cover is LL Bean flannel, and it's stayed nice longer than cheaper flannels. I'll be buying a flat sheet to match that soon (for my Japanese shikifuton mat that I use as my bed).
I love percale so will have to check those out for summer.
I buy sheets 1 at a time, as we need them. I culled the collection to 2 sets per season: winter/flannel and hot weather/cotton. I intend to make an extra large flat sheet, the next time one of the hot-weather bottom sheets dies.
I hate fitted sheets, because they almost always look messy in storage.
Our Ikea bed has a shallow mattress and it's HEAVY. I'd like a traditional box spring/mattress, but I think my chances of getting that are between slim, none, and not at all.
Does anyone recall the nudist lady who used to be here? She highly recommended Coyuchi organics. She promised the cost was worth it.
So I jumped and bought a set. I love them! She was so right. I wash them once/week, hang them dry, and straight back onto the bed they go. I bought a set of cotton sheets for summer. Same process.
Worth every penny. I bet they are 20 years old.
iris lilies
2-18-21, 10:53pm
Loose .chickens was the nudist lady.
ApatheticNoMore
2-19-21, 12:06am
Does anyone recall the nudist lady who used to be here? She highly recommended Coyuchi organics. She promised the cost was worth it.
So I jumped and bought a set. I love them! She was so right. I wash them once/week, hang them dry, and straight back onto the bed they go. I bought a set of cotton sheets for summer. Same process.
Worth every penny. I bet they are 20 years old.
I have that brand of sheets too and some blankets and a throw, embarrassingly pricey, sheets are maybe 7 years old. Those I got were not super high thread count (don't know if they even make them anymore) but they don't pill.
rosarugosa
2-19-21, 6:30am
I buy sheets 1 at a time, as we need them. I culled the collection to 2 sets per season: winter/flannel and hot weather/cotton. I intend to make an extra large flat sheet, the next time one of the hot-weather bottom sheets dies.
I hate fitted sheets, because they almost always look messy in storage.
Our Ikea bed has a shallow mattress and it's HEAVY. I'd like a traditional box spring/mattress, but I think my chances of getting that are between slim, none, and not at all.
NewGig: Why are you not able to get a traditional mattress/box spring? Is it a matter of maneuvering a box spring into a tricky space?
I remember reading somewhere that anything over 400 thread count was overrated, said by a guy in the textile industry. Here's something from Wirecutter at NY Times (article last updated Feb 2020):
"Preethi Gopinath, director of the Textiles MFA program at Parsons and one of the writers of our cotton sheets guide, and Shannon Maher, chairperson and assistant professor of the Home Products Development department at the Fashion Institute of Technology, both weighed in on the best thread counts for each weave:
"Percale
"Gopinath said a 250 to 300 thread count was optimal (there’s wiggle room, though, as Maher said 200 was also good).Gopinath told us a 400 to 500 thread count for percale could reflect a denser sheet made of fine, good-quality yarns. Over 500 was “not necessary or likely,” she said.Average-quality percale hovers around 180.
Sateen
Gopinath and Maher agreed that good-quality sateen sheets ranged from 300 to 600 thread count. The number could creep higher, but this would create a very heavy sheet.Average-quality sateen ranges from about 250 to 300."
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/good-thread-count-for-sheets/amp/?0p19G=0232
400 is fine for me. 600 feels slippery, like plastic, to me.
I have that brand of sheets too and some blankets and a throw, embarrassingly pricey, sheets are maybe 7 years old..
Cost per year is stupid LOW! They may last forever. Meanwhile, people who buy cheap sheets either have already spent more buying those or are living with horrid pilling.
frugal-one
2-19-21, 4:35pm
Off topic... but wish they would come back with bedspreads. I hate comforters and all the pillows.
Off topic... but wish they would come back with bedspreads. I hate comforters and all the pillows.
The only pillows on our beds are the sleeping pillows. I've never cared for "throw" or "decorative" pillows.
We have quilts on our beds. Since I'm a quiltr. :D
frugal-one
2-19-21, 5:20pm
I have a large beautiful quilt on the bed in the winter and a bedspread in the summer. No other pillows either.
Teacher Terry
2-19-21, 5:26pm
I love comforters but don’t use decorative pillows.
I love my down comforter year-round changing between summer and winter sheets. As the comforter is queensize, it doesn't extend far so I use the 2 toss pillows to cover the sleeping pillows and make everything look finished. Also I like the look of them matching the duvet cover with a coordinated bedskirt. Basically I like a pretty bedroom. very simple but pretty.
rosarugosa
2-20-21, 8:02am
Off topic... but wish they would come back with bedspreads. I hate comforters and all the pillows.
Vermont Country Store carries them. We use a quilt in winter and a matelasse coverlet in summer.
I love my down comforter year-round changing between summer and winter sheets. As the comforter is queensize, it doesn't extend far so I use the 2 toss pillows to cover the sleeping pillows and make everything look finished. Also I like the look of them matching the duvet cover with a coordinated bedskirt. Basically I like a pretty bedroom. very simple but pretty.
I love comforters, but hate duvets. They are such a pain in the butt to put on, and then I find that they shift and look messy or lumpy--but I'm probably doing something wrong. I like plain white comforters with no duvet. Maybe from traveling in hotels so often, I like the hotel look in bedding, minus the gazillion pillows.
Teacher Terry
2-20-21, 12:05pm
I bought a grey comforter and pink sheets for my new condo. The drama wall behind my bed is going to match my sheets.
iris lilies
2-20-21, 12:33pm
I bought a grey comforter and pink sheets for my new condo. The drama wall behind my bed is going to match my sheets.
Grey and pink is a nice combo!
Teacher Terry
2-20-21, 1:23pm
It’s a combination I have never had.
TT, I love pink and grey so have to ask - dark or pale pink and grey? I have found that a raspberry pink needs a soft grey or a dark. Picky, picky, I know.:D
Teacher Terry
2-20-21, 2:14pm
Grey is medium and pink is lighter.
rosarugosa
2-20-21, 3:23pm
Catherine: I agree on the duvet & cover. I had those some years back and I thought it was way more trouble than it was worth.
We do have two extra pillows with shams in lieu of a headboard, which we cannot really have due to our sharply sloping ceilings. The pillows with shams give the bed a little more of a finished look I think, elevating it a little bit above dorm room style.
TT: I just love pink with gray. You'll have to share pictures once you move in and things start to come together!
Teacher Terry
2-20-21, 3:24pm
I will Rosa. My son is coming home from Mexico about the time I move in so he will be put right to work. The bathroom sink needs replacing and I want closet organizers in all 3 closets.
frugal-one
2-20-21, 5:27pm
Vermont Country Store carries them. We use a quilt in winter and a matelasse coverlet in summer.
Thanks for the info! I will check them out.
@rosarugosa said:2-20-21 3:23pm
Catherine: I agree on the duvet & cover. I had those some years back and I thought it was way more trouble than it was worth.
Another vote against the duvet. I agree completely: "way more trouble than" it is worth.
I love duvet covers but I have messy dogs that hop up on the bed, so I am used to covering things in self defense.
I love my duvet cover, now that I know how to put one on!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1IzS2oBBN0
Works like a charm.
madmardigan
2-28-21, 4:15pm
I LOVE linen sheets so much and always wish that I could buy more sets. Linen sheets are pricey, though I do feel like they are worth it. Cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Would love any recommendations of less expensive linen sheet sellers if anyone has found any.
gimmethesimplelife
3-7-21, 7:26pm
Loose .chickens was the nudist lady.I miss her posts! Rob
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