Creating your dream bedding also means understanding fabric basics. I will try to simplify the most common fabrics used and expand only the ones that are suited for bedding and explain why.
When trying to understand fabric types and their functionality, we must first understand the weave.
So what is a Weave ? Weaving is a word that essentially tells us if the fabric was woven or knitted. Now lets simplify the meaning of the weave types that are suited for bedding.
Common Woven fabrics:
A woven cloth is as simple as it sounds. It's a simple process of strands going over and under.
With modern machinery, this process is far more advanced and there are numerous variations, but the basics are still the same. There are 4 major types of fabrics commonly referred to woven, such as: Natural fabrics, Wool, Sustainable (a.k.a organic, bamboo etc.), Manufactured fabrics (a.k.a polyester) There are about 80 kinds of natural fabrics, 30 wool, 7 sustainable and 8 manufactured.
Lets look at the ones suited for bedding:
Natural fabrics - Most popular woven natural fabrics would be cotton, canvas, denim, drill, flannel, gauze, muslin, pique, sateen, twill, percale and velvet. Woven fabrics come in different weight or thickness and have different applications.
The only suited natural woven fabrics for bedding are: cotton, flannel, pique, sateen or percale.
Canvas, denim, drill, gauze, muslin, twill and velvet are either too thin or too thick for bedding use.
* Though recently you might have been noticing triple gauze used for light blankets, I personally do not like the triple gauze because the open weave tends to catch on to anything and the treads come loose very easily.
My personal preference for woven is Combed Percale Cotton.
Combed Percale cotton is weaved with longer threads that create a stronger, more durable fabric that is long lasting and soft to the touch. A "combed" fabric is one that was literately processed by combing the threads to make them smoother and softer to the touch.
If you have any questions or would like to learn more, please leave a comment below and I'll be happy to help.
Natti Lublini
Image: From our studio shelves: woven fabrics 100% combed percale cotton