Archive for August, 2008

Buying Online?

When talking to friends it is common for someone to say ‘Why buy bedding online?’. If taken literally you could make that argument but I would retort with these facts:

Even with those points in order it is pretty common that once a day I have someone ask me: ‘is the pillow “soft”‘? My soft is someone’s medium. So what we try to do is establish common feature set comparisions to help simplify the buying process. For pillows we ask how they sleep and recommend pillow densities based on their neck and head position, etc. For comforters we ask how warm they sleep - then recommend warm, warmer or warmest. Once again when simplified it can actually be real easy to buy bedding online  -you just have to know the system the retailer uses.

Posted in How To Buy on Thu, August 28th, 2008 at 5:29 am. No comments.

Wrinkle Resistant Sheets - Is There such a thing?

This is one of my favorite questions we get about once a week. Usually it starts out as ‘I used to have a sheet set that never wrinkled - used it for 20 years’, etc. So let’s go through what makes sheets become less wrinkled:

Fabric Content - Sheets are typically made with cotton or polyester. Other sheet fabric choices include silk, performance fabrics like TENCEL and a few others. Cotton is a natural material that can be woven in many ways including percale, sateen, twill, etc. Cotton does tend to wrinkle in most cases and some newer forms and weaving methods have improved any wrinkling issues. Polyester is a very wrinkle free friendly fabric that holds up well - but has the bad habit of causing skin irritation and feeling warm against the skin. The combination of cotton and polyester usually is a happy medium that offers the feel of cotton but the wrinkle resistant nature of polyester. When shopping in stores you will see terms like ‘cotton rich’ - this means there is more cotton then polyester in the sheets fabric content. In the past dozen years high performance fabrics like TENCEL Lyocell Cotton offer all the benefits of cotton poly sheeting but excellent moisture wicking and amazingly silky smooth (great for ecezema and pseoriasis).

Fabric Finishing - sheeting fabrics can have chemical topical treatments which basically give them a slicker feel and reduces sheet wrinkling. The downside is that this is a chemical treatment and cause skin irritations. Usually you will see chemical treatments on cotton cloth while polyester usually does not need it. High performance sheeting materials like TENCEL Lyocell does not need chemical treatments either as the material is naturally wrinkle resistant.

Fabric Care & Treatment - We would recommend that any sheeting material never be left in the dryer once finished. This alone paired with some quick folding will keep sheet wrinkling to a minimum.

So what do we recommend?

Or favorite sheeting material is TENCEL Lyocell Cotton blends which give you all of the necessary requirements. We do remind customers to not leave them in the dryer as well.

Of course if you are really neurotic you can iron your sheets - try a rotary iron like this one from Miele.

Posted in Load Of Sheets on Sat, August 23rd, 2008 at 2:12 pm. No comments.

Bulging Pillows - aka Pillow Wrangler

Today I fielded a call from a customer who was trying to find oversized pillow cases for his standard size pillows that apparently were so squished in his current cases that it felt ‘log’ like :-)

Once in a while we get  questions like this basically asking if we make any pillow cases that are extra wide not necessarily extra long. Our usual response is to tell them how the pillow case fabric measures out - say for example 20 x 26 to fit a standard pillow. Now the newest pillow cases we make are extra wide which are designed to make sure the end of the pillow does not peak out (aka no prairie dogging). These extra long pillow cases also can be used to give a hotel look because the ends are tucked back in. Surprisingly the friction of the fabric keeps the pillow case ends neatly tucked in - just like you see in a hotel.

Posted in Pillow Talk on Sat, August 23rd, 2008 at 1:44 pm. No comments.

Full Size Bedding - Where Art Thou?

We have been seeing ‘full size’ bedding requests on a regular basis - maybe once a week an email from a consumer seeking full size bedding. As part of our item development process we just stopped making full size bedding for our own collections. It’s always a shame to turn a customer away but the reality is that full size bedding is such a niche.  Now we do a healthy amount of ‘Double Size’ bedding for hotels - but usually those are full XL’s.

We thought we had the size rations down pat and even went heavy on Twin XL products for students and for some single living bedding needs - but Full’s no more.

Maybe if we see the trend keep up we will reconsider?

This really applies to sheeting, mattress pads and bed toppers being in full size. We do sell quite a few full size comforters in both down and down alternative.

Posted in Bed Sizes on Mon, August 11th, 2008 at 3:32 am. No comments.

Which is Firmer - 50/50 Pillow or All Down?

This is a common question we get all the time about which style pillow is firmer. Not drive everyone nuts but there is a third style to consider - a chamber pillow.  First lets define each pillow style:

50/50 Pillow - This style pillow contains 50% down and 50% feathers. This type pillow usually has a firmer feeling to it. We would call it ‘Medium’ usually and some styles are firmer than others - but most are ‘Medium’.

Down Pillow - A down pillow has to legally have 75% or more in its weight in down clusters.  The other 25% can be more down, small feathers and or fibers [pieces of down clusters]. Down pillows can come in soft, medium or firm densities.

Chamber Pillow - Kind of like a pillow in a pillow. This style pillow has a feather core and down on the outside (top and bottom to be specific). This pillow usually has the ‘firmness’ of a 50/50 pillow or a firmer down pillow.

So wrapping up - if you enjoyed a 50/50 pillow at a luxury hotel - then by all means by a 50/50 pillow. If you used to use a 50/50 pillow and want a replacement recommendation - I’d feel comfortable suggesting a chamber pillow. I probably would not recommend a firm down pillow as a replacement for a 50/50 pillow.

Posted in Pillow Talk on Thu, August 7th, 2008 at 7:12 pm. 1 comment.

Adjustable Bed Solutions

I had recently taken a series of phone calls from customers with adjustable beds searching for sheets. It turns out that many adjustable beds feature seperate sides which are basically two twin xl adjustable beds. Normally, we see most of our twin xl bedding being bought by potential dorm students or their families. After some further research it appears that one of our fastest growing segments we serve is twin xl adjustable bed owners. It was a pleasent suprise because when we designed our new fine linen collections we specifically wanted to have twin xl bedding for dorm students and or older customers with seperate beds.  We did not plan or know about the market for twin xl adjustable bed bedding.

One thing we did learn is that our deep pocket twin extra long sheets were really too deep for most of these beds - which ranged from 12 to 14 inches at most. We have told customers to try sheet clips as a way to hold on to the fitted sheets from below.

We also heard from another customer whose husband had Parkinsons with issues of getting in and out of bed and wanted a ’slick’ sheeting material in a twin xl size. In that case we recommended our 500 TC Tencel Lyocell Cotton sheet set in twin xl. That customer wanted wrinkle free sheets and is currently doing a wash test on her own to see if she can shrink the sheets a bit to fit her bed side better.

In short DOWNLITE is unique in that it has so many twin xl sheeting options to choose from [300 TC Percale Twin XL Sheet Set, 400 TC Sateen Twin XL Sheet Set, 500 TC Tencel Lyocell Cotton Twin XL Sheet Set]. I still stand behind the sheet sets we make as great options for adjustable beds - just make sure you get a pair of sheet clips in case you want an extra tight fitted sheet. The cool touch, moisture wicking Tencel Lyocell sheet set is a great choise for sleepers with night sweats.

Posted in Bed Sizes on Mon, August 4th, 2008 at 4:08 am. No comments.

Removing Natural Down Or Feather Odor

Over the years we have gotten requests from customers along the lines of ‘How long will the pillows have an odor?’

Anyone who has bought a down or feather blend pillow knows that natural products have a natural odor. Typicaly the reason a product may have an odor is related to heat, humidity or moisture. Every down bedding manufacturer has to meet specific industry standards for cleanliness. In addition, most bedding manufacturrs have their own ’story’ about how they clean their fillings above and beyond government standards. Some manufacturers process their fillings domestically or they bring in the fills pre-cleaned.

DOWNLITE is unique in that 85% percent plus of its fills are processed in the states for domestically made items including pillows and comforters. Our special cleansing process is called RestAssured and it certifies that our fillings are processed to the same standard in the USA with 3-4 times higher standards then the governments.  Although we process all of our fills ocasionally the filling material might become moist or heated in which case the ‘natural’ odors can come out and cause discomfort. DOWNLITE stands behing all of its products and any cases of ‘odor’ are replaced and researched to pull those fillings off the market ASAP.

If a product smells is it bad?
Aside from the unpleasent sensation caused - it is likely that the filling has remnant oils inside the clusters or small feathers which when heated have an odor.  This is an occassional happening with duck down products [duck down or duck feathers have higher oil content].

All you need to do is wash the items in question with a teaspoon of dawn which is a degreaser. Be sure to dry the items extra well so that all moisture is removed. To learn more go to our informational website on bedding care.

A cheap trick for a feather pillow used as a sham stuffer on your bed is to place a fabric softener sheet in the sham or case [just don’t sleep on them as the scent can be too powerful].

Posted in Down Talk on Mon, August 4th, 2008 at 3:42 am. No comments.