Item Shown:Leonardo 1200tc Egyptian Cotton Luxury Duvet Cover

First, a bit of history may be in order. Duvets were first used in parts of northern Europe. They are loosely quilted to keep the down from shifting to one corner of the tick and to allow for expansion of the down to hold the warm air. Used in pairs or in conjunction with a thicker mattress type featherbed, the warmth created by being between the two was more than enough on even the coldest of nights to keep a person warm.

The rest of Europe was slow to adopt the duvet. Eiderdown quilts, which are similar to duvets providing lightweight warmth, did not do away with blankets or bedspreads. Adopted during the Victorian era, they merely replaced some of the heavy, and sometimes rough woolen blankets which had been used for centuries. Still, it wasn’t until the 1970s that the rest of Europe began to see the benefits of duvets. At the time, some shops in England even offered to convert eiderdowns to duvets. In the United States, however, the duvet wasn’t of as much interest due in part to the fact we had our own rich history of quilts as bed coverings. In the past few decades that concept has changed.

Duvets have retained their historical heirloom qualities as bedding that can last for years, but the advantage over quilts and bedspreads is the covering can be changed easily and affordably to reflect different styles of bedroom design.

Whether it is used in traditional fashion as a top sheet/ blanket substitute or as a blanket/ bed covering, a duvet is a great addition to your bedroom décor as well as a light and soft way to keep warm while you sleep. Pair it with a featherbed and you can rest assured that you will be warm on even the coldest of winter nights.

Please visit Luxor Linens for the finest down comforters and duvet covers.
We are making it our mission at Luxor Linens to keep our customers informed and educated about the products we sell. We welcome your questions or suggestions: contact WendyH at LuxorLinens dot com. Follow us on Twitter @LuxorLinens

For the next few days, while you weather your sub-par sheets, you wander through department stores at the mall and online and are bombarded with information about sheets and sheets sets; information that wasn’t important to know yesterday, suddenly has begun to merge with your vocabulary. Terms like ‘Egyptian cotton’ and ‘thread count’ are now important things to know before you make this purchase that will affect not only the quality of your sleep but indeed the quality of your day should you make a wrong decision and purchase uncomfortable sheets that are not conducive to restful sleep.

Item shown: Valentino Stripe 1200tc Egyptian Cotton Sheets

So what does ‘Egyptian cotton’ mean and why is that the best available?

Cotton is grown all over the world. Only cotton grown in Egypt in the Nile River valley can be called Egyptian cotton. What makes this cotton different from other cotton grown elsewhere in the world is the cotton’s staple. The staple is the individual fiber when pulled off a ball of cotton. Egyptian cotton has an extra long staple which creates longer, stronger and more durable yarn. Think about it: if you were to take cotton strands and twist them into a yarn, would you want long, strong fibers or short fibers that tend to break? The longer staple provides for a yarn that when woven with techniques mastered and passed down for generations makes the softest, most durable and finest quality fabrics available anywhere. There are other long staple cottons grown elsewhere in the world, but they have yet to match the softness of Egyptian cotton. Plus the fact that Egyptian cotton is grown and harvested entirely by hand with the utmost care and that only natural fertilizers are used makes Egyptian cotton a great product for our green world.

What is thread count and does it really matter?

The term ‘thread count’ can be not only confusing but indeed deceiving as well. Generally speaking, the higher the thread counts, the softer the sheet. This is generally true, but you want to know how thread count affects the feel of your sheet set. Thread count refers to the number of yarns woven into a square inch of fabric. Thinking about this: you can see how more threads in the same space will mean the individual threads must be finer quality than other threads which are thicker and used in lower thread counts. However, the cotton used matters here also. Egyptian cotton is so extraordinarily soft and durable that a lower thread count fabric made from Egyptian cotton produces a softer and higher quality sheet than a high thread count fabric made from lesser cotton. You will find, in your sheet hunting adventures that the feel of 300 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets, for instance, is superior to the feel of 1000 thread count sheets made of other cotton or blends. Just remember: all cottons are not the same.

You know that you want Egyptian cotton sheets and you know about thread count, now what?

Now that we’ve helped you with the difficult decisions, you only have a couple more to make: Fabric, color and size. Size is the easy one: what size bed do you have? Full, Queen and King are the standard sizes however, California King is the granddaddy and you can now readily find Egyptian cotton sheet sets in all these sizes.

Fabric is not too difficult a decision to make. You can choose silky, smooth sateen or clean, crisp percale or a combination of both.  Both fabric types are available in Egyptian cotton and will be durable and will launder well without pilling.

Finally, color. Instead of choosing neutral colors for your sheets, perhaps you could step outside the box a bit and choose a complimentary color to your bedroom color scheme. Remember to keep your color options open and let your imagination get carried away.

Kind of like the way you will get carried away in your dreams when you finally get a good night sleep on your Egyptian cotton sheets.  Sweet Dreams.

Please visit Luxor Linens for the finest Egyptian cotton sheets.

We are making it our mission at Luxor Linens to keep our customers informed and educated about the products we sell.  We welcome your questions or suggestions: contact WendyH at LuxorLinens dot com. Follow us on Twitter  @LuxorLinens