High Thread Count Egyptian Cotton Bed Sheets – Part 6

What is "high thread count?"

Just a few short years ago the term “high thread count” referred to a 300 or 400 thread count Egyptian cotton bed sheet set. Today it means 600tc all the way up to 1500tc.

But there has been no revolutionary breakthrough in technology, no super advanced farming technique that allows cotton fibers to be spun into finer weaves. So what explains the sudden jump in thread count numbers?

The answer is two part. First, manufacturers began to labeling thread count by counting each yarn in a twisted thread. So a 300tc, 2 ply fabric all of a sudden became a 600tc fabric; what was once labeled 500tc suddenly became 1000tc.

Second, because consumers responded so positively to higher thread counts, manufacturers began producing more bed sheets with higher and higher thread counts. They did this by favoring the use of mulit ply (2 ply, 3ply, etc.) yarns instead of single ply yarns.

What does the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) think about this? They say that multi ply threads should be counted as a single thread in accordance with established tradition and ASTM (an international standards organization) recommendations. They feel that counting individual plied yarns in a multi ply thread creates confusion for consumers, which indeed it has. And yet there is substantial difference in feel and quality between multiply fabrics and single ply fabrics.

There are good reasons for making both and both have very nice qualities. To date, the market allows the use of labeling based on counting multiply threads. In the future, regulations may require a reversal to the time thread counts were based on counting multiply threads as 1 thread. Until that time, bed sheet shoppers will have to have a good understanding of how bed sheet fabrics are made when determining where to buy quality high thread count Egyptian cotton bed sheets.