Cotton Percale Bedsheet Set

Details

A percale bedsheet set woven in Erode, Tamil Nadu: 100 ends and 100 picks to the inch in single-ply 40s combed cotton, which is 200 thread count and computes to 120 GSM, and 120 GSM is what a cut disc from the finished cloth weighs. Thread count is the most inflated number in Indian home linen and the inflation is done by counting plies instead of threads. Take a 250 count cloth, weave it in four-ply yarn, count each ply separately and print 1000 thread count on the pack. The cloth is unchanged. ASTM D3775, the actual counting method, counts a thread as a thread regardless of how many plies are twisted into it. And the honest thing to say next is that above roughly 400 single-ply the number stops buying you anything you can feel: the cloth simply gets denser, heavier and warmer, which is the opposite of what someone shopping for percale in an Indian summer wants.

• 200 thread count of single-ply yarn, counted to ASTM D3775, not a ply-multiplied figure
• 100 ends and 100 picks per inch in 40s combed cotton, which computes to 120 GSM and measures 120 GSM
• 100 percent cotton by FTIR, no polyester and no cotton-rich blend sold as cotton
• Percale, a true plain weave, one over one. Not sateen, which is the smooth lustrous one
• No optical brightener, which is what makes a white sheet look brilliant on a shelf and dull after ten washes
• Reactive-dyed and azo-free below 30 mg per kg on the 24 restricted amines
• Pre-shrunk, under 3 percent residual shrinkage after three washes at 40 C, ISO 6330
• Percale is crisp and cool and it creases, because a plain weave in a fine single yarn does. If you want it to look pressed you will have to press it. It softens over about twenty washes without losing the crispness that is the point of it.