launderess
Well-known member
For decades Wamsutta heavily promoted their pure combed cotton percale then Supercale bed linen. Then it all went to heck in handbasket around 1960's or 1970's when Wamsutta began calling 50/50 polyester-cotton blend sheets "Supercale".
Know people love them but cannot abide polyester either 100% or blends. Polyester for a whole range of reasons is not something you want for bed linens, but there you are...
Wamsutta wasn't alone, nearly all bed linen mills in USA had poly/cotton blends by then. Some simply called thing what they were "no iron", others came up with more creative reasons.
Of course one main driver of this was were three main forces; more women entering workforce, and lowering of standards when it came to housekeeping. Final piece of puzzle was was spread adoption of tumble clothes dryers.
Housewives whether they worked outside the home or not simply weren't interested in doing tons of ironing anymore. Cotton bed linen is acceptable "line dried", but percale at least looks and feels far better ironed. Anyway people started tumble drying everything instead of even line drying, and that machine replaced ironing for many households.
It isn't just domestic side of things, hospitality and healthcare often use cotton/poly blend bed linen. In my day sheets and pillow cases were all cotton, but hospitals have had to cut costs...
Poly/cotton bed linen require less ironing (if at all), and those that are ironed go through mangle faster and at lower temperature. Poly/cotton bed linen also cost less than pure cotton, and weigh less as well. Latter again becomes important if things are sent out to commercial laundries because they usually charge by pound.
Know people love them but cannot abide polyester either 100% or blends. Polyester for a whole range of reasons is not something you want for bed linens, but there you are...
Wamsutta wasn't alone, nearly all bed linen mills in USA had poly/cotton blends by then. Some simply called thing what they were "no iron", others came up with more creative reasons.
Of course one main driver of this was were three main forces; more women entering workforce, and lowering of standards when it came to housekeeping. Final piece of puzzle was was spread adoption of tumble clothes dryers.
Housewives whether they worked outside the home or not simply weren't interested in doing tons of ironing anymore. Cotton bed linen is acceptable "line dried", but percale at least looks and feels far better ironed. Anyway people started tumble drying everything instead of even line drying, and that machine replaced ironing for many households.
It isn't just domestic side of things, hospitality and healthcare often use cotton/poly blend bed linen. In my day sheets and pillow cases were all cotton, but hospitals have had to cut costs...
Poly/cotton bed linen require less ironing (if at all), and those that are ironed go through mangle faster and at lower temperature. Poly/cotton bed linen also cost less than pure cotton, and weigh less as well. Latter again becomes important if things are sent out to commercial laundries because they usually charge by pound.
