Silk sheets & US pillows - YouLookFab Forum

This is way off topic, but I bet some people on here will have the info to help.

My son’s graduation is coming up, & I want to get him silk sheets. We recently got silk pillowcases from the Momme company, because they are good for his curly hair. He really likes them. I chose that company because their fabric passes the Oecotex standards and because we didn’t have to go through Amazon. They took several weeks to get here, because they were shipped with Hermès, which is quite unreliable here. We’ve only used one, because he has decided he wants a pillow like mine, which is a US standard. Ordinarily I’d get pillows from The Company Store, but they are closed.

Here’s what I want to get him:
a double/queen-sized baffled duvet (probably Ikea)
A silk duvet cover (or silk on one side/cotton on the other)
US size/shape hypoallergenic pillows
2 silk flat sheets
2 silk pillowcases for US pillows.

Everything should be oekotex or a similar environmental standard, sold somewhere other than Amazon, and it needs to get here before June 5.

Thanks for any suggestions. Comments on what not to get are also appreciated.

4 years ago

chewyspaghetti

Veteran

Not much help here, other than to say that a queen sized pillowcase is just slightly longer than a standard, so if you get an envelope style it isn't too much of an issue. (if you can't find a queen). This is what we would do for displays when I worked at IKEA.

Stagiaire Fash

Thanks Chewy. The common pillow sizes here are 80x80 cm or 80x40, so they are entirely different shapes. Is that what IKEA has too? Any advice on matching up US & Euro sizes?

IKEA has the Euro shams (the square shape you mention), but also sized rectangular pillows. The sizes are called Standard, Queen, and King (in order of length). IKEA's duvet covers and sheet sets come with queen size pillowcases (even the children's bedding), except in king sizes (which come with King pillowcases). It sounds like your rectangular pillow is the size of the cushions they sell for living room throw pillows.

Thanks! I didn’t know ikea had anything that connected up with US pillow sizing. I’ll have to double-check the size of any pillow cases I order against what our IKEA site has, but that sounds promising.

Irina

Unfortunately, I don’t have any advice. What I would like to know is care instruction for the silk bedding you consider. I have 2 sets of silk pillow cases and I air dry them after wash as I never put silk in a dryer. That prevents me from getting more silk bedding, also I’ve read that silk sheets are too slippery to sleep comfortably. What is your experience with it?

Irina, I hang everything to dry, so had not thought about the likelihood that a young man would put them in the dryer vs air drying them. You were quite right that the instructions say to hang them up. Now I need to find some that he can toss in the dryer. Otoh, could he go off-label and toss them in the dryer anyway? What happens to silk? If it just isn’t as pretty but is still silky on the skin, that’s probably fine.

Here is one accidental experiment that turned out ok. It was only one time; he’d need to dry them repeatedly. But she used heat; he could avoid that. https://www.google.com/amp/s/j.....r-too/amp/ would multiple dry it’s have a cumulative effect?

FashIntern, silk will shrink, by how much will depend on a manufacturer. I know that for a fact as I successfully shrank a couple inexpensive silk tops almost one size down. Dry cleaning is an option.

If it’s just shrinkage, that’s probably not much of a problem for the pillowcases and duvet cover, and I want to get him flat sheets instead of fitted for the mattress, so shrinkage won’t matter there either.

shiny

I don't know the answer but I invested in a silk pillowcase-- Slip brand-- this past year and my hair has never been happier. I am a convert.

Prior to that, I tried putting one of my outgrown silk nightgowns over my pillow. I forget what brand that was, but I can tell you the quality was nowhere near as good as the Slip.

They don't offer sheets or anything else really other than hair turbans, eye masks, and headbands. But the silk is amazing quality. Really amazing. Worth every penny.

I do hand wash. It dries super fast. No dryer needed. Have owned about a year and still looks brand new.

Thanks Shiny!

Anonymous

I have silk sheets and duvet cover in our guest bedroom. They are a bear to iron, being large. I use silk pillowcases and iron them always. They need to be smooth for hair and skin. I was the. In the machine in a lingerie bag with gentle soap and air dry. It is helpful if they are a bit damp when ironed. Just expect to have to iron the bedding after every washing.

Bijou

I use satin pillowcases - they are just as robust as cotton and relatively inexpensive, no ironing required.

Be careful and read tags. I bought some satin pillowcases at Bed, Bath and Beyond and was told they were silk. They did not act like silk and the tags said that they were 100% polyester. Something like that might work for a teen boy. They are smooth and probably could be put in the dryer. They might be staticky with hair, and hot on a warm night.

Bijou and Joy, thanks for your thoughts on this I’ve decided not to make it a “ta-daaa” surprise & am talking about it with my son. He has been sleeping on a silk pillowcase for a few weeks and would like more silk. I’m supporting that, along with his general growing awareness of natural fibers. I don’t think he’d use polyester or whatever satin sheets, because they’d give him that icky kind of sweat. I don’t think he realizes how sensitive he is, because I’ve always adapted readily to his requests, on top of already buying natural fibers and avoiding tags in his clothes when possible. We are looking for silk in local fabric stores and markets, might wind up going online. He can make hospital corners and use garters for the bottom sheet. That way it will work on various bed sizes. For now he’ll have a top sheet made of a piece of silk fabric with some self-adhesive blanket tape on it; when I get a sewing machine, I’ll make it into a duvet cover with cotton on the other side. For his birthday in the fall, I might surprise him with a second duvet cover made of something like this cotton fleece (on one side)—but only if I’m convinced he’ll wash it often enough. I’d like to find a bolt that’s at least 180 cm wide to make a full-sized cover.

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