How much will bed linen shrink when washed ?

Cotton Bed linen shrinkage

Newly manufactured 100% cotton bed linen will shrink when washed, and will continue to experience further shrinkage for the first couple of washes.

Here are a few points to understand and consider when making a purchasing decision and subsequent product shrinkage when washing.

Wash temperature and product specifications will define how bed linen shrinks when washed. Customers can control wash temperature, product specifications is the complicated bit.

The following shrinkage guidelines relate to our Lunar Cotton bed linen - Domestic wash temperature of 30c or 40c will cause an overall size shrinkage of about 3%. Commercial laundry washing cause an overall size shrinkage of 6% - 8%, this is because commercial laundry operates at much higher temperature. After 3 washes at the same temperature the product size will stabilise, however if you wash the product at a higher temperature than normal you can expect further shrinkage - this applies to domestic wash temperatures. Washing bed linen at 60c occassionaly is a good idea for home use.

Product specifications - bed linen specifications are complicated and highly technical. Country of origin and thread count have very little relevance to product shrinkage. So when you purchase bed linen, as a consumer you have absolutely no idea how the product will respond to washing. Every year cotton harvets can vary, manufactures source yarns from different countries / sources, we could go on ......

Yarn specifications and weave construction will define how a product responds to washing. You can have two cotton T-shirts that look identical but made with different specifications, one T-shirt will experience minimal shrinkage and one will be up by your belly button after washing.

We have many returning customers that purchase our bed linen for both domestic and commercial use. Our products are sized taking into consideration all relevant known shrinkage data.