Background
Bed sheets are a key part of bed linens, ensuring comfort while sleeping. Made primarily from cotton, linen, or synthetics, these sheets come in a variety of fabrics, each offering a different feel. For example, percale is a closely-woven, smooth fabric often used for its cool and crisp feel against the skin, while flannel sheets, made from nappy cotton fibers, are preferred in the winter months for their warmth. Silk and satin are considered luxurious, offering a soft, silky touch. Bed sheets can be made from blended fibers like cotton-polyester, providing a balance of comfort and durability.
Sheets are generally produced by flat-woven techniques using a broadloomed fabric that’s crafted on a loom. Once woven, the fabric is cut into rectangular shapes and sewn together with side seams and a center seam. Hems are added to the top and bottom of the sheet to create finished edges. The sheets are then processed for a smooth, comfortable feel. While commercially available sheets are common, imported options from regions like Eastern Europe and Britain offer different textures and styles. Whether it’s a fitted sheet that hugs the mattress or a woven sheet that complements the pillow case, each bed sheet is crafted with care and attention to detail.
History
The tradition of making bed sheets dates back millennia, with early civilizations like the Egyptians using linen from the flax plant, which was cultivated, spun, and woven into soft fabric. This early linen culture laid the foundation for bed sheets that were used by sleepers across the world. Over the centuries, European cultures perfected linen goods, making items like pillow cases, napkins, and towels. During the colonial period in the New World, especially in the Northeast and Middle Colonies, American women took part in the time-consuming process of processing linen to create household linens.By the 19th century, the introduction of cotton cultivation in the American South, boosted by Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin, revolutionized the processing of cotton into bed sheets. This allowed for larger cotton production on southern plantations, heavily reliant on enslaved labor. As New England textile mills began using British cotton manufacturing technologies, they mechanized the process of spinning, weaving, and dyeing, enabling the production of bed sheets in huge quantities. By 1860, mechanized looms produced bed sheets on a much larger scale. With the development of blended fibers like cotton-polyester, bed sheets became cheaper, wrinkle-free, and available in bright colors and elaborate decoration, marking a shift to more affordable, mass-produced printed bedsheets. Today, bed sheets are imported from various countries, including the United States, and are available in a wide range of fabrics and designs.
Raw Materials
Cotton is the main material used in bed sheet manufactory. First, cotton is harvested and processed into bales, which weigh around 480 lb (217.9 kg). These bales contain cotton wool, but they can also have twigs, leaves, and seeds, which must be removed during the cleaning process. After spinning the cotton into yarn, the threads are woven into fabric. To make sure the fabric is soft and smooth, starches and sizing agents are added during the weaving process. The fabric then undergoes bleaching, often using caustic chemicals like chlorine or hydrogen peroxide to clean and prepare it for dyeing. Depending on the desired color, chemically-derived dyes or natural dyes from plants and trees may be used. Once dyed, the color-fastness is tested to ensure it lasts through washing.
The Manufacturing Process
Manufacturers first purchase bales of cotton and deliver them to the plant. Some bales are already spun into yarn and come in spools, while others are still in cotton form and need to be spun. After spinning, the yarn is used in the process of making sheeting, which is then woven into fabric to create bed sheets.
Procuring the cotton
Bales of cotton, weighing around 480 lb (217.9 kg), are purchased from cotton producers and shipped to the manufacturer. These bales are then used to create the fabric for sheeting in the manufacturing process.
Blending
Bales of cotton are laid out side by side in the blending area. An Uniflock machine then opens and beats the cotton to remove any impurities, initiating the blending process. The cleaned cotton fibers are blown into tubes, where they are mixed in a mixing unit to ensure consistency.
Carding
The blended fibers are moved through tubes into a carding machine, where they are aligned and oriented in the same direction. The machine’s cylinders, with millions of teeth, pull and straighten the fibers, while also working to remove any remaining impurities.
Drawing, testing, and roving
The cotton fibers are further blended and straightened, then drawn together into one strand. This strand moves through a roving frame, where it twists the fibers slightly and winds them into cotton roving on bobbins, ready for the next stage.
Spinning and Yarn Formation
The rovings are spun using a ring spinner, turning the cotton into a single strand. This small strand is twisted and spins into yarn, which is then wound onto bobbins and placed on winders before being used on the loom for weaving.
Preparing the Warping Beam
Yarns are pulled from spools and loaded onto a warping beam, where they are arranged lengthwise in the warp direction. The process involves 2,000-5,000 ends of yarn, forming a large section beam, which contributes to the width of the sheet.
Slashing
A section beam is passed through a slasher machine, which coats the yarn with starch and sizing to protect the ends and make it easier to weave.
Preparing the Loom Beam
The section beams are coated with sizing and then loaded onto a large loom beam, containing 6,000 yarns. The old yarns are automatically tied using a machine with a knotter, and in a few minutes, the knots are pulled, allowing weaving to begin.
Weaving the Fabric
In the weaving process, warp (vertical threads) and weft (filler threads) interlock on high-speed, automatic air jet looms. These looms can insert filler threads at a rate of 500 insertions per minute, with each insertion happening in one-tenth of a second. The weave creates sheeting at 90 insertions per inch, producing fabric that is 5.5 in (14 cm) wide and 10 yd (9.14 m) per minute, which amounts to 8,000 yd (7,312 m) per hour, and is then wound into rolls for further processing and shipped to our collection.
Cleaning and bleaching
The fabric starts as greige or gray material, which is first cleaned by singeing to burn off any contaminants on the surface of the yarn. The shedding process involves desizing and bathing the cotton yarn in water and soaps to remove dirt, remnants, and debris. The fabric is then treated with caustic chemicals and concentrated bleaches like chlorine or hydrogen peroxide, to remove the gray color and make it whitened. Finally, the fabric is washed, rolled, and dried in a dryer, with moisture removed, preparing it for the dyeing process.
Dyeing
Sheeting, which starts as gray-colored or white, is dyed by applying pigments in color vats. The dyestuff is pressed onto the material using large rollers, then steamed to set the color. Afterward, the fabric is treated with resin to reduce shrinkage, rolled into huge rolls, and finally cut and sewn into finished products.
Fabric Cutting and Sewing
Automatic cutting equipment pulls the cloth from the rolls and cuts it into the requisite length for sheeting. The pieces are then transferred to a sewing machine, which sews the top and bottom hems to finish the product.
Sheet Folding and Packaging
The sewn sheet is folded by machine, then ejected and shrink-wrapped. Each piece is individually packaged for sale.
Ensuring Quality Standards
The sheeting manufacturers begin by purchasing cotton bales, which are classified based on length and staple. The cotton is sorted into nine grades, ranging from middling to good quality, with shorter staples used for batting and longer staples used for higher-quality products like Egyptian cotton. Impurities like debris or residue are removed to ensure only clean cotton is processed, and the yarn is spun into rovings, which are rope-like strands used in production.Quality control is crucial at every stage. Test data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture is analyzed, and spool yarn is carefully inspected in the weaving facilities. Throughout the process, employees at the plant conduct physical tests in laboratories and perform visual inspections to ensure each batch meets the desired standards. During bleaching and dyeing, chemical solutions are monitored closely, with statistical samples taken to verify the final product’s quality before it moves to the next manufacturing stage. EMBROIDERED BEDSHEETS undergo additional scrutiny to ensure high-quality craftsmanship.