You would think that at my age I'd know what kind of bedsheets to buy. But I'm constantly buying the wrong ones. Grrr. I just bought a beautiful-looking set for the spare bedroom. 300-thread count, 100% cotton, labeled "wrinkle-resistant", felt wonderfully soft to the touch in the store and a lovely shade of blue. I just washed them, according to the instructions. They came out rough, a different shade of blue, and so wrinkled that I will be embarrassed to put them on the bed. But I have no choice. Now that I've washed them, I can't take them back to the store. And with more houseguests coming, I have to use them - I tried to iron the pillow cases but even that didn't make them look much better.

I had cheap sheets on that bed and the other spare bed - both sets WERE wrinkle-free and much softer, despite also being 100% cotton and a lower thread count than these new ones. We do have Egyption cotton on our own bed - they're luxuriously soft, but too expensive to get for this spare bed. When I touched these new ones in the store I thought they felt close enough.

So what do you recommend? What blend of materials and thread count makes for the softest, most carefree sheets? I want my houseguests to sink into softness without the hassle.

Eagle Heart, Ralph Lauren makes some nice sheets that are high threadcount and wrinkle free and affordable. I also purchase sheets from an online website called Domestications. http://www.domestications.com I love the selection and the sheets feel wonderful after washing. I buy egyptian cotton at the highest threadcount I can find.

Thanks Vicki! That's a great site...it even ships to Canada, which many online companies don't do. I'll explore further. It's more expensive by the time they add the exchange rate, duties and shipping costs, but I can already see that there's a wider colour selection than any of the stores I've been into here at home.

It turns out that I can return these sheets, even though I've already washed them.

EagleHeart
I have purchased some great sheets from Tuesday Morning, if you have any of those stores in your area.
My favorite sheets are egyptian cotton or pima cotton in a high thread count (400 to 600). You pay lots more upfront, but they last forever. Also, overstock.com has lots of linens and I have found some great buys there.
Happy sheet shopping.
Anno

Anno, I had forgotten about overstock.com. Thanks for the reminder.

We have Tuesday Mornings in Baltimore. For htose of you who aren't familiar, it's a discount store. You get better quality items at much less expensive prices. You never know what you'll find, but it's fun to dig through.

I've always been told that the higher the thread count, the better the sheet.

Vicki since buying once from Domestications I won't buy bedding anywhere else. I have had some now for four years and have washed them hundreds of times and they are still soft and wrinkle free. Eagle I highly recommend their catalogs.

When hubby came home from work yesterday, I showed him the wrinkled sheets, but he wasn't overly concerned. He thought they were still very soft and comfy, and that his daughter wouldn't even notice the wrinkles. I still had my doubts, but since the pillowcases were the most wrinkled, I rewashed them today, hung them outside to dry and they came out much better. I did three sets of sheets in the same load - the others came out fine, but maybe these new ones just got all tangled up inside the other sheets and that's why they were so wrinkled.

That Domestications site is very tempting. By the time you add the duties, shipping and exchange rate to ship to Canada, they're just too expensive for spare sheets, but I've bookmarked that site for future sheet-buying for OUR bed...I really like the colour choices!

A while back when I bought sheets, I found the Egyptian cotton with a high thread count (I forget the exact numbers, but it was around 500-600 I think). Very expensive.

When I washed them, they came out wrinkled, but they were very soft. They were too soft. They felt downright slimy on the bed. I decided I like crisp better than soft.

I'm thinking next time I will look for cheaper crisp sheets.

smile

The crisp sheets leave marks on my skin. Seriously. When we sleep in hotels, sometimes the sheets burn and chafe me all night. It was such a relief to finally find the Egyptian cotton sheets for our bed several years ago. They were a high thread count, and purple (do you know how hard it is to find purple sheets here in Canada? Impossible! I think I finally found them on Amazon.com and ordered them through a friend in the States.) After 5-6 years of regular washing, they still look and feel fresh and soft.

We tried putting cheap sheets on both spare beds. One set only lasted a few washes before the elastic wore out, the other set hurt my niece's skin, so we gave them away and bought some better quality sheets for her bed. These new sheets will go on the other bed, the one that hubby's daughter uses when she comes to visit. She likes the softer sheets too.

Up here in the north country, we have to have two sets of sheets - summer and winter. The winter ones are warm, cuddly polar fleece-type material. My nieces love snuggling down into those when they visit.

This is too much. I've never heard on sheets hurting anyone until last week when we had a similar conversation at the beach. One of the gals talked about how a set of sheets rubbed her skin raw. Then I hear Eagle say the same thing. I must either have some tough skin, or soft sheets, but I didn't think I had either.