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Bedding Glossary Plus Side Notes
Embroidery is the art of decorating fabric and other materials by stitching with thread or yarn but also other flashy materials can be incorporated. Embroidery techniques are vast but can be classified according to whether the design is stitched on the top of the foundation fabric or through it and by the stitched placement in relationship to the fabric.
Decorative embroidery has been around since the earliest civilizations and has been a mark of wealth and status in many cultures all over the world. Today an elaborately embroidered item such as in clothing or in a bedding accessory like a bed sheet immediately conjures a sense of elegance, wealth and sophistication. Though the tradition of embroidery has its roots in early human history there has not really been any significant changes from the earliest embroidery works to the embroidery works of today; or even advances that can be interpreted as breaking from the old, neither in materials used or in the techniques employed even with the major advances within the “Industrial Revolution”. In fact the level of craftsmanship of some of the earliest works are rarely attained today.
Sateen (not to be confused with "satin") is a type of fabric usually of cotton or rayon that has a sheen and a soft feel produced by its weaving process of four over and one under and by placing the most threads on the surface of the fabric the cloth becomes extremely soft though a little less durable than other weaves.
There are different ways for achieving a sateen fabric and they vary in quality by their composition forms. The best method to achieve a high quality cotton sateen fabric with a high sheen is to mercerize the cotton (mercerized cotton is also known as “pearl” or “pearle”), this process is called mercerization where the cotton thread or cotton thread with a polyester core is bathe in sodium hydroxide and then neutralized in an acid bath. This increases the strength of the thread, its resistance to mildew, its affinity for dye and gives it a higher luster. The process of cotton mercerization alters the chemical structure of the cotton fiber it inter-converts from alpha-cellulose to thermodynamically more favorable beta-cellulose polymorph. The end result is an increase in the surface area of the tread and its reflectance and gives the fiber a softer feel. A cloth produced through mercerized cotton will have all these attributes.
Sateen produced by calendering is a less desirable form. Caledering is a finishing process used on cloth to give it a glossy look. To calender the cloth the fabric is folded length-wise and passed through rollers at high temperatures and pressures that polish the surface and gives the fabric a more lustrous look and smoother texture, but the fabric feels thin and papery. The glossy finish does not last long and is easily ruined by washing. This type of sateen is not consider genuine.
Satin is a type of weave, this weaving technique forms a minimum number of inter-lacings in a fabric with the warp yarns (a series of yarn ends “warp ends” that extend to the longest the part of a loom) dominating the weft yarn (the yarn that goes over and under the parallel warp yarns to create a fabric).
A fabric woven with a satin weave tends to have a higher luster with a smoother and glossy surface and a dull back. This type of weave is commonly found in such things like bed sheets, neckties, nightgowns, evening gowns and lingerie as well as other apparel. The name satin originated as a term for samite the more lustrous types of heavy and luxurious silk fabrics. Satin comes from the word Zaitun the name of the Chinese port from where the silk was obtained. Though some still defined satin weaving as forming silk fabric the truth is that there are many different variants of satin weaving and also using different filament fibers such as nylon or polyester and cotton.
Thread Count is the counted number of threads found in a square inch counting both the warp and the weft (“horizontal and vertical”, “the length and the width”) according to the National Textile Association (NTA) citing the ASTM originally known as the American Society for Testing and Materials an international standards organization says “the accepted industry practice is to count each thread as one, even threads that are spun as two or three ply yarn”.
Although this are the recommendations from the NTA and ASTM as a standard for the textile industry not everybody follows them as some count each single yarn in a plied yarn as one thread. There are also others who use only single yarn strands as opposed to ply yarns which also elevates the thread count number. Although this type of counting of single yarns as one thread could be view as thread count inflating, it is also not without merit for the provision relating to woven fabric in the “Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States” (HTSA) published by the USTIC (Office of Tariff Affairs and Trade Agreements) states that each ply should be counted as one.
The standard thread count of a cotton fabric is around 150 and good quality sheets often starts at 180. A 200 thread count or higher is considered percale (which it is noticeably tighter than standard bed sheets, has a medium weight, feels firm and smooth and handles washings quite well, among other qualities). Typically the higher the thread count the smoother (softer) the fabric and usually last longer. However, precautions are recommended when purchasing bed sheets with high tread counts advertized at low prices for in order to achieve a high tread count fabric with plied yarns they will need to use great quality filament fibers; and the higher the quality the more expensive the bed sheet fabric becomes. A linen manufacturer has to take into consideration the cost to produce the fabric and if the cost is generally low than most often so will the fabric. So if the high tread count sounds good and sells for very low than that could be a sign that a different thread count implementation is being used than the accepted industry practice.
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