{image from Elle Decor, May 2004. Photograph by John Coolidge}

Tuesday Morning : The store. It's a random hodge-podge of everything from spatulas to bath robes.  It's not well merchandised.  In fact, it's a bit of a mess (at least the one near me is).  Still though, the scavenger in me has to keep tabs on their inventory… so I check it out every once in awhile.

I went last week and this is what I saw in the bedding aisle:

Nancy Koltes

Donna Karan

Sferra

Lilly Pulitzer

Peacock Alley

Some of the usual suspects:

Tommy Hilfiger

Calvin Klein

In my last visit to Tuesday Morning I even saw the coveted:

Frette

Tuesday Morning has nothing on ABC Home, except maybe low prices.

For a Tuesday Morning store near you – click here.

It looks nothing like this inside a Tuesday Morning:

This is inside ABC Home in NY… if you haven't been… you are missing out!

Decorno was talking about sheets this week, which has prompted me to finish this post that's been my drafts for a few days. Interesting comments over at Decorno (many mentions of Tuesday Morning), worth reading here if you are shopping for sheets.

The best sheets I've ever bought are Ralph Lauren and Martha Stewart (from KMart, not Macy's). Sheets are hit or miss.  I've seen people pay hundreds of dollars for high thread count sheets online, then wash them once and they pilled.  My preference is percale… crisp and cool… 100% cotton – no pilling. Of course in the winter… my must-have and favorite bedding purchase of all time is this.  

{image from Martha re: How to Organize a Linen Closet}

I have researched sheets before… and here's what I have enjoyed and found very informative:

Thread counts lie READ THIS.

Sheets 101: Knowing Your Percale from Your Pima

Real Simple: What to Look for When Buying Sheets

Precious Bedding: Guide to Buying Sheets

Martha on the matter of folding sheets.

HGTV's Guide to buying sheets says this:

Selecting Sheets
Sheets are the area in which bedding gets very confusing, particularly now when you can buy anything from jersey sheets to linen sheets, at thread counts ranging from 150 to more than 1,000. The first thing to consider is the weave, says Susan Tosches, senior buyer for The Company Store, a La Crosse, Wisc., based retailer. A percaleis a plain or balanced weave, meaning the vertical and horizontal threads, the "warp" and "weft," cross each other one at a time. Percale can be all cotton, or a blend of cotton and polyester. Usually percales are about 180 thread count, referring to the number of threads woven per inch. "It’s a very sturdy sheet and it’s a little bit crisper," says Tosches.

A sateenweave means one vertical thread is woven over four or more horizontal threads, and then under one horizontal thread. "It has more threads on the surface and so it reflects more light, has more shine," Tosches says. Sateen sheets are often made with "low twist" threads. When cotton is made into threads the fibers are twisted so they don’t come unraveled, Mendelson says. Sateen fibers are twisted fewer times, making for a smoother surface, but it can also make the fiber less durable. "Sateen wears holes sooner," Mendelson says.

Other weaves include jersey, a stretchier knit fabric ("it’s like sleeping in your t-shirt," Tosches says), and flannel, in which the surface is brushed, creating a warmer feel to the fabric.

What it all means is that you need to decide feels good against your personal skin. Percale will be crisp and cool, sateen will be softer and clingier, and jersey and flannel will be soft and warm. One way to figure it out is to buy a set of pillowcases in one particular weave and sleep on them for a few days to get an idea of what you like. It’s a much cheaper investment than an entire set of sheets.

After weave, the next consideration is thread count. A higher thread count means more threads per square inch of fabric, which requires a tighter weave. And a tighter weave often means a finer, softer, sturdier fabric. But higher thread count doesn’t always correspond to higher quality. "It can be very misleading," says Susan Tosches. "Thread count is not the end of the story." A high thread count sheet may be made with lower quality fibers, for instance, or have an inferior weave.

Check out the kind of fiber used as well as thread count. Egyptian, supima and pima cottons are long fibers, Tosches says, and "when you have longer fibers to weave with you get a silkier, smoother touch." If the cotton is "combed" it’s gone through a process in which the shorter fibers are removed from the yarn and all the fibers are put in the same alignment, making for a softer fabric. Some sheets are blends of cotton and polyester. They wrinkle less and are easy to wash, but the polyester can pill over time, which can be irritating to sleep on. Mendelson prefers pure cotton plain weave percale sheets with a 200-250 thread count. She looks for untreated cotton, which means the sheets have not received a resin treatment that makes them resist wrinkling.

"Untreated cotton wrinkles miserably and no one wants to iron sheets," Mendelson says. "But if you haven’t had the percales without any resin treatment, it’s surprising what a nice feeling it is. You just have to take them right out of the dryer and fold them immediately and stack them on top of each other while they’re still warm." And sheets dried on a clothesline are virtually wrinkle-free, Mendelson points out.