What Is It With Sheets These Days

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Some Where A Vintage Linen Dealer and Or Collector

Is thanking your sister! *LOL*

One is probably making a fortune or at least a nice profit, the other is quite happy enjoying her/his *find*.

All over Europe and the UK long locked doors to linen presses, cupboards, chests and so forth are being flug open, and things that haven't seen the light of day in ages are being hauled out.

Estate sales, dealer sales, auctions, market days, eBay, the lot. Everyone is selling vintage linens. European women cannot understand why some of their sisters and or Americans want the bother and fuss of old linens, but they are happy to oblige the craze and make a nice bit of money in the process.
 
Same with us. I table cloths, napkins, etc went to the cleaners and was only brought out on holidays. Some of the table cloths had belonge to my grandmother and had beatiful cutwork on them. I don't get off on that kind of stuff and along went our old linens to Good Will. Beautifult to look at, but a booger to take care of. My old percale sheets I would wash on warm. Dry on low. Never any bleach. Sometimes if I thought they didn't look as white as they should I would wash them on hot, but very rarely.
 
I have a keen sense of smell and another reason I never liked to use bleach. The smell lingers in the fabric. I always used what the bottle suggested or less and it seemed like I had to put the wash thru a couple of extra rinses just to get the smell out. Same with vinegar. And this was before I had an HE machine even. Fellow employees of mine at work Jim & Jennifer. They love bleach so much I joke to them and especially Jennifer that they would get it piped under ground to their houses if they could! LOL. Jim, I know you're reading this. Confirm this to our listening audience. LOLLL
 
Bleach

"Miss Lucy" believed in the powers of Clorox bleach and passed that on to me. I'm not crazy about the smell of bleach and whenever I use bleach I always rinse twice. Sometimes I'll run the washer thru another complete cycle with no detergent or softener to get the smell out. I cleaned the bathroom yesterday with Greased Lightning and Tilex. It looks beautiful but I almost overdid it on the bleach fumes.LOL, :o)
 
I like the smell of bleach on bed sheets from time to time. About once every month I put in a little bleach in the first rinse. The second rinse is with vinegar added. Then the third rinse is clear water, warm of course. The vinegar seems to help kill the bleach odors quite a bit. Since all but two sets of bedsheets are white we can do this.
 
Laundress:

Have you ever heard of a product called "Le Blanc Linen Wash"? I came across it while looking for bedding. It claims to make your sheets last longer because it is gentler on the sheets than normal laundry detergent. I also saw something called Vaska too.

Have you used either? And what do you think of these specialty products?

Link to Le Blanc Linen Wash info.

http://www.snuggledown.com/s/catalog/le_blanc/linen_wash/
 
Linen Wash

One of those "garage" boutique laundry products, IMHO.

Package won't say what the stuff contains so you cannot decide for yourself what it is best suited.

Lots of high end linen dealers love selling products such as these because of the nice mark-up they can get and consumers feel they "must" purchase something that will protect their "investment".

Far as one can tell LeBlanc Linen wash is probably nothing more than another SLS based product.
 
Lots of high end linen dealers love selling products such as these because of the nice mark-up they can get and consumers feel they "must" purchase something that will protect their "investment".

You know there is a lot of truth to this statement. Just look when people buy car batteries. They usually get seduced into buying those little felt rings to "protect" the battery terminals on the new battery. The list of "add on" sales is endless, and usually comes with a nice profit margin for the retailer!

I think just washing with Persil could be the best thing for your sheets.
 
Disclosure

Actually have several large bottles of LB "Linen Wash" part of a case purchased several years ago on fleaPay. It cost less for the lot than what stores around here charge for one bottle.

Tried contacting the maker (they are based in Florida) about what was in the stuff as have many others, and got no where. Near as one can figure out is is a private product made by special order to one of those "chemical" companies. You know the sort, you tell them what you want in the product and they handle the mixing, packaging, etc. Indeed LW's bottles are standard plastic containers anyone can purchase in from places such as ULine.

In general found LW was fine at cleaning linens that weren't soiled by anything more than bodily oils. However it is rather sudsy and may not rinse cleanly if over dosed. In my tests it did *NOT* remove blood or many of the other stains listed claimed on the packet or in advertisments. To get around this I add some liquid enzyme product (Bac-Out by Bi-O-Clean), and or make sure to pre-treat stains with an enzyme pre-treat product before things to into the wash. If stains are going to require any sort of bleaching will add one of the various oxygen based bleaches have in my stash.

Linen dealers, collectors and such have long favoured a product by P&G called "Orvus", which is simply SLS in paste form. Originally sold for bathing farm animals and horses, many like the fact it does not contain bleaches, OBAs, etc, and is a pH neutral product. So in theory Orvus, Linen Wash and the rest are supposed to good for fine and or vintage linens.

Personally feel you can launder fine or vintage linens in any detergent long as you know what you want to do, and choose the proper product to get you there.

I wouldn't wash a 100 year old handmade lace tablecloth in Tide, but I might choose Orvus, LW, or what not.

Actually two of the best products often used by those in the know for cleaning fine linens aren't made anymore. Original Ivory Liquid dish detergent, and Octagon liquid in the white bottle.
 
My goodness.....Mother Yogi has 2 cedar chest, 1 loaded with still-in-packages of sheets, mostly double beds, thats all we had, and until now never understood why she has all of these, but I remember her buying them on sale, and storing them in there when we were growing up...still loaded

the other chest is full of towels, most are of complete sets of 2 towels, 2 hand towels, and 2 washcloths....

Mother never liked solid colors or plain white, always had to have a print of some sort....

a method to my madness is the bathrooms and bedrooms are color-coded.....
mainly for towels, hand towels, and washcloths....sheets to match....to keep equal amounts in each room, and to know where they go without running back and forth looking as to which cabinets need filled....

main bath and kids rooms get white towels and sheets

master bed and bath get grey and burgundy....towels and linens

3rd Bath gets olive green and tan.....towels and guest bedroom sheets
 
I'd Get Those Lines Out Of Those Chests

If I were you... *LOL*

Long term exposure to the oils from cedar wood can cause yellow marks on cotton/linen textiles that may never shift.

And yes, the vapors from the wood count as "oils", *LOL*.

If nothing else take a look at what is stored in those chests to see if there are any stains or potential problems developing. This is something one should do with all linens stored anyway.

In olden days about once a year a housewife, housekeeper, or whomever was in charge of linens would open up the stores and go over everything. Notes were made as to what needed repair, what couldn't withstand any further mending and should be either cut down for other uses or discarded, finally what needed replacing.
Many did this in late winter as the custom of January "white sales" took hold. This way one knew what was required and spent money wisely. Another reason for doing this in winter is that all those dark, cold and otherwise days spent indoors could be used for mending/repair work and or running up new linens.

This was also the linen cupboard or storage area would be cleaned, dusted, aired, and so forth. For one thing this made sure one's clean linens remained fresh smelling, and the other was to keep down any vermin (insects or otherwise).
 
This is a fascinating thread, I never gave linens much thought until I got my new furniture in 2006. I bought a Chris Madden Hotel bed set for my new bed from J.C. Penney on sale for half price (was still costly). It came with 350 thread count sheets (can't remember the weave). I also bought an extra set of 500 count Chris Madden sheets to go with it. I like both sheet sets and they are holding up well.

 

About three years ago I bought a set of 1000 count Egyptian cotton sheets on sale at Target. I really like these. They are heavy and feel cool when I lay on them. They are soft too.

 

Having never slept on really good linen like the vintage stuff mentioned in the above posts, I really do not have anything to compare my current sheets with, but I'm satisfied with the ones I have.  I might buy a vintage set on ebay just to compare and see what I've been missing.
 
Just thought I'd report that we have used those Target house brand 325TC 100% organic cotton sheets, and they are very comfortable! Smooth and don't wrinkle in the dryer. And they can be washed in hot water too! And they are priced reasonably. Anyone looking for nice everyday sheets should take a look at them.

The $12.00 percale sheets we ordered from the Today show special about 10 days ago are only now just being shipped. I imagine they'll be coming in on the slow boat from China!
 
The $12.00 percale sheet set finally arrived from The Company Store. They are on the bed and we used them last night.
I couldn't believe they were only $12.00 per set. They are very nice and smooth.
They are also finished nicely. They are rather lightweight and will make a good summer top sheet, but the percale weave is very tight.
At that price, I wish we would have bought a set or two more.
 
Sheets are definately not made like they used to be. I have several sets of Cannon double bed size sheets still in their package that were in a cedar chest that my grandmother had. She started purchasing them in the 1940's. They are indestructible. I had used some years ago, but now have a king bed, so here they sit. The only thing I didn't like was that they did not have fitted sheets then. And also, they wrinkle like the dickens. We used the same types as a child when I was growing up, and my mom used to have to iron them. I think in the later sixties, we had perma press sheets with fitted sheets that would actually stay on the bed when you would roll over, or have a restless night.
 
Hotel Brand

I bought the Hotel Brand sheets from Macy's last year.  Don't waste your money.  Wrinkles Wrinkles Wrinkles.

 

I'll find something cheaper next time around.

 

Malcolm
 
Fitted Sheets

Are a unique American invention, though they are now found all over the world. Prior to that bed linens came as they always had, flat sheets. Indeed even today some major European luxury bed linens do not make fitted sheets. If one wishes such a thing a flat sheet must be sent to a seamstress (either part of the company or out sourced), for running up at cost.

The one big change over the ages was when sheets came in one solid width, rather than two or more pieces of fabric sewn together. Originally considered a comfort and restricted to those with means, as looms to weave such sheets became more common everyone could get them.

Those who remember flat sheets with center seams either loved or hated them. Sleeping on a seam is not always very comfortable. Many children who grew up sleeping two or more to a bed used the seam as a "dividing line". Anyone or their body part that crossed into enemy territory was liable for slap,poke or jab! *LOL*

For economy sake sheets made with center seams did save a household on linen costs. Next to the hems, it is the center of sheets that receive much wear. When they began to get thread-bare and or darning would no longer suffice for mending, the seam would be opened and sheet turned "sides to middle",and a new center seam created. Obviously the invention of the sewing machine saved time and eyesight for making these repairs and the original sheets as well. Have some old French hemp/linen blend sheets in my stash with center seams. The stitches are so small and perfectly aligned it must have taken someone ages to do.
 

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