Our Top Picks Best overall: Parachute Sateen Sheet Set You should also invest in four to eight dryer balls, and ditch the fabric softener and dryer sheets as these only coat your bedding in false softening agents that can irritate skin. High heats are unnecessary to clean sheets unless you’re solving for bed bugs or a virus, as it’ll shorten the lifespan of your bedding by affecting the integrity of the threads. In general, however, sateen sheets should be cared for similarly to all cotton sheets : Wash in cold water and line or tumble dry on a low heat setting. It’s also heavier, so if you tend to sleep hot or live in a very warm environment, this might not be the best pick for you.Įasy Care: It’s always important to read the care instructions for textiles. Softness & Feel: Unlike percale, the other popular weave for cotton sheets, sateen is undeniably smoother and can feel almost like silk. A lot of times, manufacturers will use cheap raw materials or double, even triple, fold threads to inflate thread count in order to charge you more. Craftsmanship and the type of raw materials used are equally important-for example, Upland cotton versus Egyptian, with the latter being rarer, more expensive, and undeniably softer. Just because something has a high thread count does not mean that it’s high quality. You can absolutely find higher thread counts, especially from luxury brands that use super fine Egyptian cotton threads, but beware of marketing gimmicks. Unlike percale, which has a one-over-one weave and an ideal thread count of 180 to 300, sateen’s three- or four-over-one weave allows for more threads to be fit into a square inch, making it a denser and generally softer sheet. The ideal thread count for sateen is 300 to 600, says Logan Foley, managing editor for Sleep Foundation.
Thread Count: Thread count is the number of threads in a square inch of fabric, and it’s one of the determining factors for quality and feel in cotton sheets.
Not to be confused with satin, sateen isn’t a fabric but rather a type of weave that’s typically employed for cotton sheets. If you love silky soft sheets, but don’t want the fuss of actual silk sheets, you should consider sateen.