Bedding fabric is one order wearing three names, and most of the confusion in the category comes from treating the name a shop sells under as a specification. "Percale", "sateen", "peachskin" and "satin" are not four different fabrics. They are four different constructions and finishes of the same base cloth, and the fibre underneath them is usually the same 100% polyester. A sheet that feels crisp and cool, a sheet that feels silky, and a sheet that feels soft and warm are three choices of weave, yarn and finishing route - not three choices of material.
That matters for anyone buying in volume, because the name on a retail listing tells you almost nothing about the specification that has to arrive at the mill. The same word covers a 60 g/m2 percale and a 140 g/m2 brushed peachskin, and the two sit on different looms with different finishing and different floors. This guide sets out the bedding fabric types a buyer actually chooses between, says what each one is bought for, and then gives the specifications that decide whether a mill can make it. It is written from the weaving shed rather than from a catalogue, so it says plainly which of these are our programmes and which we do not make.
The bedding fabric types and what each one is for
| Type | What it is | What it is bought for | What to specify |
|---|---|---|---|
| Percale | A balanced plain weave - one warp thread over one weft thread - with a matte, crisp hand | Sheets that must stay cool and crisp through hard laundering, and the standard hotel sheeting construction | Weave, yarn count, GSM, finished width, shrinkage allowance |
| Sateen | A float weave, warp threads floating over several wefts, giving a smooth lustrous face and a warmer hand | Consumer sheet programmes where the surface has to look soft and feel silky | Weave, yarn count, GSM, finished width, luster expectation |
| Satin stripe | Woven sheen bands on a plainer ground, usually tone on tone, sitting in the cloth rather than printed on it | Hotel and hospitality bedding where the bar is a woven look | Band width and ratio, colourway, weave, minimum per specification |
| Microfiber | Synthetic fibre below 1 denier, giving a very large surface area for its weight | Lightweight bedding, cleaning cloths and apparel, where softness comes from the fibre rather than the finish | Yarn denier, GSM, finishing route, width |
| Peachskin | A mechanically brushed, sueded surface on a polyester base, matte and cotton-like to the hand | Home bedding and summer-weight comfort bedding, and the most requested bedding programme we run | Yarn denier, brushing route, GSM, colour fastness grade, minimum per colour |
| Flannel | A napped cloth brushed on the fabric face, warm and soft in use | Winter bedding, where warmth comes from the nap rather than the weight | Nap weight, base fabric, shrinkage, wash durability |
| Jersey | A knitted construction, stretchy in one or both directions | Fitted bedding and anything that has to stretch over a mattress | Knitted, not woven - outside what a weaving mill can supply |
| Printed sheeting | A printed surface on a greige base cloth - rotary screen, digital, or pigment | Seasonal, client-specific and short-run bedding programmes | Print method, colour count, fastness grade, minimum quantity |
| Solid and yarn dyed | Piece-dyed in one shade after weaving, or woven from yarn that already carries the colour | Programme colour matched to a brand's own palette, and stripes that are part of the cloth | Pantone or lab dip reference, fastness grade, minimum per colourway |
| Functional bedding | Base cloth carrying a treatment - stain resistant, antibacterial and anti-mite, moisture wicking, wrinkle resistant, insect repellent | Hospitality, healthcare and allergy-aware programmes where the fabric has to perform after laundering | Treatment, the standard it is tested to, certification scope, wash durability |
| Regenerated polyester | Polyester from post-consumer bottles, carrying GRS certification | Programmes that need a documented sustainability credential without giving up performance | Certification scope and site, recycled content, route and minimum |
| Natural fibres | Cotton, linen, bamboo and viscose, silk and Tencel | Premium or heritage bedding where the natural fibre is the specification | Not our programme - we weave 100% polyester and name the honest stand-in for each |
Two of those rows carry the argument a buyer actually has to settle, and both have their own pages: peachskin against microfiber is a decision about which hand the customer will feel, and satin against plain is the construction decision behind percale and sateen. The rest are specification choices, and a mill should be able to answer "can you weave that" without going back to the office.
What this mill weaves for bedding
Not every type above is ours to supply, and the honest version of this section is narrower than the table. This mill weaves 100% polyester and nothing else, on 650+ waterjet looms, with daily output above 200,000 meters of polyester fabric. What that means for a bedding programme:
- Greige in plain and twill, 160-330 cm wide and 55-120 GSM. The base cloth under every finished bedding route. A stock greige specification can ship without a minimum; a make-to-order combination of width, GSM and weave starts at 5,000 meters.
- Peachskin, brushed on two sanding machines. A cotton-like hand with a matte, sueded surface, and the largest bedding programme we run. It is quoted at 5,000 meters per colour or specification.
- Satin stripe in production, woven on waterjet with a dobby head, so the sheen bands sit in the cloth instead of being printed or dyed on afterwards. A new band or motif is confirmed on a sample before the run, and the floor is 5,000 meters per specification.
- Three print routes on that base cloth: digital print with no printing minimum and the best colour fastness, disperse rotary print for production volumes, and pigment print as the lower-cost route with the lowest fastness.
- Solid dyeing at 3,000 meters per colour and bleached white at 2,000 meters, against a finished band of 150-315 cm and 60-140 g/m2 that sits slightly narrower and slightly heavier than the greige it came from.
- Finishing routes that change the hand: softener, washed-cotton feel, embossing, and the functional treatments - C6 stain resistance rated at 30+ wash cycles, insect repellent at 20+, moisture wicking at 50% faster drying, antibacterial above 99% and anti-mite above 90%, and wrinkle recovery above 120 degrees.
- Regenerated GRS greige in stock with no minimum, and 3,000 meters to dye it.
The catalogue on this site lists what is in production today, and the mill-direct polyester page sets out the whole route from greige to finished cloth.
How to write the PO line
A bedding order that names the construction, the weight, the width, the finish and the quantity can be quoted without a sample round trip. One that names only the fabric type cannot. The line should carry:
- Construction, not a material. "Percale" and "sateen" are weaves, and the fibre can be identical across both, so the line has to name the weave and the yarn count. "Polyester fabric" on its own leaves the mill choosing the construction, the weight and the finish, and those three choices are what move the price.
- Two weights and two widths. Quote greige GSM and greige width separately from the finished specification, and name the method - ISO 3801 or equivalent - with the number. A weight without a method is not comparable between two mills.
- The finishing route, and what it does to the cloth. Brushing, softener, coating and printing each change weight, width and hand, so naming the route is what makes two quotes comparable at all.
- Fastness and wash durability as grades, not adjectives. Name the method and the passing grade. Digital print is grade 4-5, disperse print and dyeing grade 3-4, pigment print grade 2 and up.
- Quantity per specification. 5,000 meters for most woven and finished routes, 3,000 for solid dyeing, 2,000 for bleaching, no minimum for digital printing, and no minimum on stock greige or on stock regenerated GRS greige.
If the programme repeats a construction that has already run, quote the construction code rather than the description. If it is new, approve a full-width production-route sample before bulk rather than a small swatch - a swatch will not show the hand difference between a 60 and a 120 g/m2 face, which is exactly where bedding programmes disappoint in the field.
Where to go deeper on each type
The comparisons that need their own page are already on this site: peachskin against microfiber for the hand, satin against plain and plain against twill for the structure, solid dye against print for how colour gets into the cloth, and virgin against regenerated for the recycled route. For the material vocabulary itself, the peachskin, microfiber, sateen and satin stripe pages explain what each construction is, and the polyester fabric types guide covers the wider catalogue. The peachskin landing page and the microfiber fabric page cover the two most requested bedding faces, and what is GSM in fabric and the GSM calculator guide cover the number that moves the price. If the question is narrower than the type - which of our own programmes to put on a bedding line - the shorter bedding fabric answer is the one to read.