Fitted Sheets

Pocket depth, and why it is the number to check

A fitted sheet is held on by elastic at the corners, and the pocket is how far the fabric reaches down the mattress side before that elastic takes over. Get it wrong and the sheet works loose in the night, usually at the corner by your feet, and remaking the bed at three in the morning is how most people find out their mattress is deeper than they thought.

Measure from the top surface of the mattress straight down to the underside, and include a topper if you use one, since a topper adds its full thickness to what the sheet has to cover. Where a range states its pocket depth, the product page carries it, so check the figure there against your own measurement rather than estimating.

Sizes follow the mattress, not the duvet

A fitted sheet is cut to the mattress, so a UK double is 135cm by 190cm and a king is 150cm by 200cm. A duvet cover in the same named size is a completely different set of dimensions, because it is cut to the duvet. That mismatch is the commonest sizing error in bedding and it catches people who are buying pieces separately rather than as a set.

If you are replacing a sheet for a bed you already own, the safe move is to measure the mattress. Bed sizes are standard in theory and less standard in practice, particularly on older frames and on anything imported.

Percale, sateen and how a sheet feels

Percale is a plain, tight weave with a matt surface and a cool, crisp handle. It is the weave behind the fresh, hotel feel, and it is the better choice if you sleep warm. Sateen brings more thread to the surface, which makes it smoother and slightly lustrous, and it feels warmer against the skin.

Thread count sits underneath both and matters less than either. A well-spun 200 thread count percale outlasts a loose 400, because yarn quality and weave tightness do more for a sheet than the number woven into a square inch. Where a range states its thread count the product page carries the figure, and where it does not, the weave is the more useful thing to read.

Getting a fitted sheet on, and keeping it on

Find the long side before you start. Most sheets are cut so the elastic runs deeper at the corners on the long edges, and starting there gets the sheet square on the first attempt. Work diagonally: top left corner, bottom right, then the other two.

If a sheet fits but still creeps, the usual cause is a mattress protector underneath with a slicker surface than the mattress itself, and a set of sheet grippers solves it for a few pounds. If a sheet has never fitted, the pocket is too shallow and no amount of technique will fix it.

Washing and drying

Forty degrees is enough. Wash darker sheets separately for the first few cycles and keep bleach away from anything dyed. A tumble dry on a low heat is what stops a sheet setting into hard creases, and taking it out slightly damp then smoothing it onto the bed does most of the work an iron would.

If you want the crisp finish that percale is capable of, bring it in damp and press it warm. Rotating two sheets per bed roughly doubles the life of each, because sheets wear by wash cycle rather than by year, and the elastic goes long before the cloth does.