Sheets

About a month ago, Abbie launched herself off my bed in one of her skeered kitty fits. I happened to be in the bed at the time. Her hind toenails left a couple of clean-edged rips in my bottom sheet. Although I wasn’t very happy about it, I thought I’d just go get a patch kit and repair the tiny rips. No sense in getting rid of a perfectly good sheet that only had a couple of small tears in it.

It was a good idea, but I didn’t implement it quickly enough. My watch band caught on the edge of one of the tears and suddenly it was a much larger tear. Still reparable, I thought. And then I tossed my sheets in the laundry. Suddenly the rip went from one edge of the sheet to the other. So much for good ideas that stay ideas.

That was my last bottom sheet. My linen closet leaves a little to be desired. Obviously, it was time to fix that problem.

I haven’t gone shopping for sheets in quite a long while. I like 100% cotton sheets of at least a 250 thread count. My last set was about 400 ct. They were nice and supple and soft, but I’m not all that picky about thread count as long as it is good quality cotton.

Still, when I went shopping, even the cost of 200 ct cotton sheets floored me. When my bed’s wardrobe costs as much as my own, there is an obvious imbalance in the universe. There was no way on earth that I was spending $90 for a set of sheets. And those were the cheap ones.

How in the world can a large square of basic cotton fabric cost that much? Really. How?

So, I lived with my ripped sheet for a couple of weeks, while I tried to find something online that didn’t cost a small fortune. And I found just what I was looking for at LinenSource-- 250 ct, 100% cotton twill sheets in double/full size. In mix and match colors. For the grand sum of $11.99 per sheet. At that price, I decided it was worth a try.

My two new sheets (one white fitted sheet and one shell pink flat sheet) arrived in the mail on Saturday afternoon. I took them out of their wrappers to examine them...they were supple and soft and substantial. They were well made with nice even hems along the sides and top. No puckering on the hems and no imperfections that I could see. Nothing fancy, but very well made. They even had a slight sheen to them. And they draped well.

I popped them in the washer on Sunday and hung them out to dry. Last night, I finally put them on my bed and gave them a whirl. The first thing I noticed was the generous cut. Even after washing, there was still plenty of sheet to fit the bed easily. I’m sure they shrunk in the wash, but shrinkage allowance was clearly built into the sheets. That’s usually a hallmark of more expensive sheets, but not always. My much more expensive 400 ct sheets were not at all generously cut. My new top flat sheet hung down each side about a foot. And the length was generous enough to tuck the flat sheet well under the mattress at the bottom with the top edge of the sheet reaching all the way to the headboard. Just right. And they were still soft and lovely. And pretty.

And comfortable. I had a luxurious night’s sleep in them. Of course, I think the pretty pink helped. It’s been a while since I’ve gone all girlie foo-foo in my bed linens, but this pink matches my new quilt perfectly. I like pink. A lot.

Anyway, at $11.99 per sheet, I think I’ll get a few more for the linen closet. If Abbie puts any more rips in my sheets (it has happened a couple of other times, too), I won’t be nearly as upset. And I also now have a patch kit, just in case.