Here’s a way to stretch out in luxury without harming the environment: choose a striking set of leopard sheets for your bedroom.
Whether they’re a traditional design of brown-black-tan natural leopard print or leopard spots on a vivid pink background, the big cat pattern won’t matter once you feel the smoothness of top quality sheets against your skin.
Time was that savvy consumers could look solely at thread count and know they were purchasing quality sheets. While a thread count of 200 or higher is still advisable for quality, these days there are many different fabrics and ways to process fabric finish. It pays to know something of these details before you go prowling for the leopard sheets that will bring a touch of the wild into your bedroom.
How To Select Leopard Sheets
First, consider the fabric used to make your leopard sheets. Believe it or not, the best fabric for sheets is cotton, which breathes well against the human body. There are several types of cotton, among them Egyptian, grown along the Nile River Valley to produce exceptionally fine quality yarn; Pima Cotton, named after the Pima Indian tribe of the American Southwest; and Organic cotton, a variety grown without fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides.
Other types of fabrics may be used to create your leopard sheets. These include synthetics such as polyester, which resists wrinkles but isn’t as soft and durable as cotton. Most leopard sheets in satin are made of polyester charmeuse, which is silky to the touch, but doesn’t breathe and may not last long. Cotton-polyester blends also are used, but these sheets aren’t as breathable and wear out faster than 100 percent cotton. One alternative to cotton that’s proving itself is soft and silky bamboo cloth, made from the pulp of bamboo grass, a fiber that resists bacteria and is hypoallergenic.
After fabric, look for the type of weave in your leopard sheets.
Common Leopard Print Sheets Weaves Include
Sateen, which puts most of its threads on the surface in a four over, one under stitch. This weave is extremely soft, but it’s not as durable as some other weaves.
Pinpoint, which is a stitch of two over and one under. It’s more durable than regular weave but not as soft as sateen.
Percale, in which the yarns are woven one over and one under to create a strong, long-lasting fabric that lets air to pass through easily. While crisp at first, percale will soften with repeated washings.
When looking at manufacturing techniques, most likely your leopard sheets will be made of combed cotton, a process in which short, uneven fibers are removed. This leaves behind long, straight cotton fibers that are evenly aligned.
Flannel sheets – and yes, you can find leopard print sheets in flannel – are soft and fuzzy with a napped finish. This type of sheet will really keep you cozy over cold winter nights.
Alas, however, leopard print sheets so far haven’t been found in a Jersey finish. Just as their name implies, Jersey sheets feel like wearing a T-shirt to bed. Since these are knitted rather than woven, there’s no thread count to check. Since they apparently don’t come in a leopard print, you might have to coordinate them with a leopard comforter to get in your quota of spots!
Sweet dreams on your leopard sheets!
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