Roguevalley, thanks for the tip. I love percale sheets, and am glad to see that they're getting easier to find again. dbfirewife, percale is a tight weave that results in a crisp sheet. Stays crisp even after laundering. I recently bought a set for my new bed at Tuesday Morning. Package said the set was originally $360 (king size), and after a few markdowns I got them for $80. I absolutely love these sheets. I need another set and have been looking at SmartBargains.com. I'm getting bit confused however. Did see a set of Barbara Barry 400 tc percale for $99 (plus I have a 10% off coupon). Supposedly they originally retail for over $350. But then I saw more percale with higher thread counts for less money! I guess you need to be able to actually touch the sheets in person to know what you're getting.

Yes, percale vs linen is equivalent to lemons vs watermelons. Then there are the various issues attendant to each. Percale is a weave. But the type of cotton used to make them and the place of manufacture are the difference in price and quality. All percale today will be imported. Countries of manufacture are most often China for anything accessibly priced. There are outliers, of course, but this is generally true. Portugal and Italy manufacture the highest quality percale sheets today, with Italy doing the highest end sheeting. Linen sheeting comes from Belgium, France and Ireland mainly. Where it's manufactured also ranges from China to Italy and there is some linen sheeting made in the USA by artisanal ranges like Rough Linen and Linoto, principally. Sheets have become an investment. But they are a necessity. I think it's a good idea to buy extra pillowcases, which always can be used, and test. I say test because you don't really know what cotton percale or linen sheeting will feel like until they have been washed at least 12-20 times. The reason is the finishing agents used. Until those are completely out of the fabric you don't know what it feels like. With low-end percale if you feel a little prickly sensation, that's because the cotton fibers are shorter and there are more ends. That's why the Italian-made percale is so expensive -- it's done with the longer fiber cotton and over time feels like silk. A sheet retailer I spoke to believes that the cotton used for sheets is the single most important component. It's important to do a little googling when coming across something like Thomas Lee's "Perfectcale," or Wamsutta "supercale" which is are marketing term, not types of cotton or weaves. There are American cotton industry websites that explain cotton and its history quite well and also explain the quality differences. But the reality is that is no way to verify cotton origin or quality when you actually buy it. You'd need to send sheets to a test lab for that. The best analogy I can give for this is a white cotton shirt. Older ones that must be ironed get very soft and smooth over time. Anyone going with percale needs to accept that it must be ironed or low dried then hand smoothed -- this is not "wash n wear" bedding. Anyone who wants no -wrinkle bedding should be looking at synthetic blends, not spending for classic percale or linen. Anyone going with linen needs to accept that it's going to dry more quickly but will also take some manipulation and a lot of time to soften up. At it's best, linen also should be ironed which will make it stiff initially. Practicalities with beds also come into play. I remember the time before fitted bottom sheets. I'm not going there again. I cannot stand a messy, rumpled bed. I don't want to remake the bottom sheet daily. Some don't find this. It's just takes awareness of the choice. Aside from that sheets are hit and miss today. The reason is that retailers may not keep the same sourcing over time. There is inadequate information given by retailers either because they don't know or the don't want to disclose. OTOH, most people have no idea what they are buying and even reading the range of reviews makes it difficult to tell. A negative review from someone complaining that percale rumples and isn't smooth out of the dryer is worthless. One reviewer says the sheets are wonderful and smooth; another says they are like sandpaper. That can be individual perception or a change of supplier. No way to know. So welcome to the great game of bed linen roulette. This link to Making Sense of Buying Bed Sheets may be helpful.

Roc, if you want to find out if your sheets have synthetic fibers, take a clipping of the fabric in some discrete location, and burn it with a match and sniff. If there are synthetic fibers in there you will smell it. If its cotton it will smell too, like burnt cotton. I too love the old sheets. I just bought some, never washed, sheets off ebay several weeks ago. 2 of the sheets were muslin I believe but advertised as percale. There are 3 densities of sheeting weavings that I've seen referred to. The lowest density is muslin, that I believe is around 130 threads/sqin. I've seen reference to an intermediate thread count. The the highest is percale. I believe these differences are only in the number of threads per inch. The type of cotton fiber influences the quality of the fabric. There is Pima cotton which is a long staple fiber. I've read somewhere that Pima cotton is a sort of "brand" of cotton plant, that was developed in the early part of the 1900's, and named after the Pima indians, who were the primary growers in the SW US at that time. Here is a lot of info on cottonhttp://www.cottoninc.com/fiber/quality/ Here is the label of the old "new" sheets that are percale. They are lovely washed up. The packaging was intact and made of cellophane instead of plastic. I love the description on the back. I think "Pencale" is just a JC Penney's trade name. The yellowing in the photo is a shadow of some sort, they were white. These pics were taken out of the cellophane package.

Olychick, thanks for that video. I’ll send it along to DSS. Wonder why she didn’t secure the corner ties? I’ve always done something similar without the rolling. I lay out the cover, lay the comforter on top, tie the corner ties, grasp it by the upper corners, and flip the cover outside in. Fun2BHere, I don’t know if those dorm rooms are typical through out the country, but they are pretty typical in the SEC. Now, my really big problem is when I ordered the duvet, I had it sent directly to DSS, but I used the wrong house number! The Company Store isn’t open today for phone calls. I’ve sent an email and I’ve sent a Twitter DM. If I can’t get it resolved through them, I guess I’ll need to get in touch with UPS and have it re-routed. I’m so mad at myself!