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Posts Tagged ‘silk sheets’

Sleeping on synthetic fibers can be an uncomfortable experience. Synthetic materials are usually hot and sticky during the summer months and chilly during the winter. Although cotton sheets are more comfortable to sleep on than sheets made with man made materials, they can be a bit coarse, especially if they don’t have a high thread count and they are prone to wrinkling. Silk sheets are the ultimate luxury for the restless sleeper. However, since they are a bit more expensive than other types of sheets, caring for silk sheets is an important concern.

Most silk sheets are designed to be machine washed on the delicate cycle in cold water. However, you should check for a label with washing instructions on your sheets before you assume they are machine washable. Some silk sheets must be hand washed in cold water instead.

No matter how you wash your sheets, don’t use a traditional laundry detergent or bleach. These chemicals are too strong for silk and can cause the silk to shatter, which is a condition where the silk fabric literally breaks apart. Instead, you should use a special silk safe detergent. In an emergency, you can try washing your sheets with Ivory soap, which is extremely mild.

Once you wash your sheets, it is time to dry them. Don’t wring them out to remove any of the water still on them, because they are just too delicate to handle this. Instead, you can gently shake the sheets to remove some of the water and then hang them carefully across an indoor clothesline or drying rack until they dry.

Using a dryer to dry your sheets is a bad idea, since the heat could cause the silk to shatter. Even if the sheets come out of the dryer looking unharmed, they will not last as long as air dried sheets because the heat makes the silk threads very brittle. Drying sheets on a clothesline outdoors is a bad idea for the same reason. After all, the sun can give off quite a lot of heat. In addition, sunlight can really damage the color of your silk sheets.

Finally, if you are overwhelmed at the thought of caring for your silk sheets, you may want to consider having them dry cleaned. Make sure that you let your dry cleaner know that the sheets are made with silk before you hand them over. A good dry cleaner knows exactly how to clean and iron silk without damaging it.

Soft, light and beautifully elegant silk has for centuries been a symbol of ultimate luxury and sheer opulence. From Chinese Emperors to European Kings, silk has always been displayed for the admiration of others. Today, very little has changed. When someone mentions a silk dress, suit or even silk bedding an image of luxury and wealth springs to mind. This is because over the centuries even with all the technological advances in fibres and synthetic yarns, silk is still the fabric of choice for the ultimate luxury items.

Silk bedding is no exception to this rule. Being stronger and harder wearing than cotton bedding, silk bedding can far outlast synthetic rivals. Silk is naturally strong, and silk bedding made using long-fibre mulberry silk is extremely strong. This is because the long fibres found in mulberry silk have a cumulative effect on the finished article, giving it both more flexibility and combined durability than shorter fibre silk products. This strength is part of silk bedding’s attractiveness when it comes to durability. When silk is cleaned using a silk detergent, the silk fibres rejuvenate giving the silk elasticity and strength that far outlasts cotton and polyester, making silk bedding both a luxurious and wise long-term investment.

Something quite new on the bedding scene in recent years is a silk filled duvet. These duvets, as one would expect are filled with silk rather than the more traditional fillings of down and polyester. Sleeping under silk brings a whole new experience, one that Chinese Emperors have allegedly enjoyed for generations. Silk, being a natural fibre is healthier than sleeping under synthetic polyester. Dust mites find silk an inhospitable environment to live in which makes silk filled duvets very attractive to anyone who suffers from hay fever and dust mite related allergies.

Silk duvets are unlike other duvets in that they help our bodies to regulate their heat throughout the night. Long fibre mulberry silk duvets are layered by hand placing the silk in an intricate grid pattern. This allows some of the heat we generate throughout the night to escape, and this in return keeps us cool. Because our overall temperature is kept regulated throughout the night, we sleep better. Simple and yet such a clever idea. Why we haven’t we been using these duvets for years is a good question, but they are here now and after using one going back to conventional duvet is simply impossible.