The Linen Doctor

A monogram is usually made by combining the initials of an individual or a company and is used as a recognizable symbol or logo. Historically, a monogram was used as a royal signature. Romans and Greeks used them on coins to identify their rulers. Then, in the Middle Ages, artisans began to use them to sign their work. Victorian-period high-class persons adapted the monogram for personal use as a symbol of their place in society. The most common use of monograms in our linen store, Scheuer Linens, is on towels, bedding, and napkins.

In the Victorian era, rules for monograms were quite simple and few. Female monograms had the first initial on the left, middle initial on the right, and the last initial embroidered larger in the middle. A married monogram would use her first name initial on the right, maiden initial on the right, and new last initial larger in the center. However, many modern couples use monograms with the bride’s first name on the left, the grooms first initial on the right, and joint last name initial larger in the center. Rules are now flexible and people can really do what they want.

Monogramming can also be used to add a touch of color to a set of towels or bed linens and typically match another color element in the room.

The monogram of the entire alphabet, shown at the top, is from the Dictionnaire du Chiffre-monogramme, published in 1881, is difficult to read and is typical of fancy monograms from the past.  Other samples of older monogram styles are shown above with the initials S W, M S, and A V M. Monograms today tend to be much simpler, using either a simple block letter or a traditional script. The three most popular styles chosen by our customers are shown below.

Are paper bags really better for the environment than plastic bags? Apparently, they’re both bad. Both can be made from recycled materials and are recyclable. It takes more water and energy tomake paper bags than plastic bags. Paper-bag production kills 14 million trees a year and creates more air and water pollutants than plastic-bag manufacture. The best thing you can do is use reusable cloth bags or totes instead.

And what about those plastic bags that keep our dry cleaning nice and fresh? The dry cleaner we use, Holiday Cleaners in San Francisco, now uses plastic bags that can be recycled. The New York Times now uses bags that clearly say, “This bag is recyclable.”

The infamous blue and white striped plastic shopping bags we use here at Scheuer Linens are 100% recyclable. Consumers shouldn’t stress too much, as long as they’re recycling or reusing store bags, whether by filling paper with newspapers for recycling or carrying their lunch in plastic, according to Chris Newman, an environmental scientist with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The most important factor in selecting a sheet is simple: how does it feel to you? Everyone’s taste in sheeting is different, so think about what really matters to your and how you sleep.

Often people don’t realize that the weight of a sheet can make all the difference. Do you prefer a light, almost-not-there feeling or do you prefer to be draped in softness? Or do you like to switch from season to season.

The finer the fiber, the better the sheet. It’s that simple. The world’s finest cotton is grown on the banks of the Nile River in Egypt. Egyptian cotton is renowned because it yields one of the longest-staple cottons in the world, the staple being the individual cotton fiber. The longer the fiber, the better it can be spun into smoother, stronger finer yarn.

Thread count is the number of threads per square inch of fabric. The staple size, weave, yarn type, ply of the yard, and thread count together make up the feel of a fabric.

After a sheet is woven, it goes through the complicated process of fabric “finishing.” This is an important step that determines the final texture, color, and softness. Italian mills that produce SFERRA linens consider fine finishing an art form, and guard the exact process as a secret.

The four types of fabric typically used in bedding are percale, sateen, jacquard, and linen. Each type of fabric has a unique feel and weight. Percale, for example, is a tight uniform weave that results in a smooth, crisp feel and matte look. We feature Grande Hotel (top left) with a 200 thread count as a terrific value and promote Sferra’s Giza 45® (top right) as the very finest percale sheet made.

Sateen is a weave that features long expanses of exposed yarns, creating sheen and exceptional softness. Milos and Millesimo (bottom left) have the highest number of threads per square inch - 1020 - of any sheet made and has a heavier feel than our 590 thread count Diamonte and Giotto (bottom right).

For more information or a free brochure called “Lose Count”, please e-mail us at info@scheuerlinens.com or call us toll free at 800-762-3950.

In celebration of Barbie’s 50th birthday, we held a contest here at Scheuer Linens in San Francisco (www.scheuerlinens.com) to see who could make the best Barbie using unclothed craft doll forms of various sizes (as well as actual Barbie forms) and recycled materials and discontinued products from our store. Needle and thread was not allowed, allowed glue, tape, clips, and tacks. Our staff of ten outdid themselves, as you can see from the pictures. Louis Cortellesso made the Bonwit Teller scene (see picture above) with 15 members of the Barbie family shown. He handmade the clothes on the mannequins in the windows after painting four Barbies black. This is truly museum quality work.

Ten other Barbies were submitted, including: (second row, from left), detail from Bonwit Teller scene, made by Louis Cortellesso; Robo Barbie, made by Mark Scheuer; (third row, from left), Barbies by: Janet Scheuer, Vichhana Leng, Helena Bui; (bottom row, from left), by: Pamela Nelson, Cindy Wang, Vanessa Arreola. A prize of a day off was to be given to the person making the best Barbie, but they were all so good, everyone who made one was given a day off.

The Barbies up will remain on display in our store for about three weeks, so please come in and enjoy our handiwork. We’re at 340 Sutter St. in downtown San Francisco, right around the corner from Union Square.

“I was delighted to have the opportunity to work with you personally yesterday. As always, you expert advice and extraordinary serevice (no matter what size order) is most appreciated. No wonder that Scheuer Linens endures in these financially uneasy times.” - R.B.

“I write to commend an outstanding salesperson in your San Francisco shop - Ms. Vichhana Leng. From our first meeting in mid-July, 2008, through to the arrival of the special-ordered merchandise las week, she has been a joy to work with.

Her patient dedication to seeing that I was absolutely pleased with my purchase was truly outstanding and ‘beyond the call of duty.’ She is the personification of the phrase ‘customer service,’ and you are fortunate to have her on your sales force.

Because of her superlative attention to my needs, I will use your company in the future. She is a jewel to be treasured.” - G.U.

When the Obama family starts living the in the White House, they will have quite a few rooms to consider redoing…the Executive Mansion has 16 bedrooms, most notably the White House Master bedroom, but also the famous Lincoln and Queens bedrooms, as well as a number of less formally named rooms…there are 35 bathrooms in the White House, but unlike the bedrooms in the Mansion, none of the bathrooms have official names…the State Dining Room seats up to 140…so that’s a lot of new linens…by the way, the White House also has 412 doors, 147 windows, eight staircases, three elevators, and one bowling alley…I came across all of this data in the November 24 issue of Home Furnishings Now, one of the trade publications we regularly read.

Customers who purchase organic cotton products often ask about environmentally friendly cleaning, both at home at the local dry cleaners. We recommend Holiday Cleaners, 1820 Polk St., San Francisco since they are one of five GreatEarth® San Francisco dry cleaners listed on the GreenEarth Cleaning website, www.greenearthcleaning.com.

A GreenEarth® Cleaning may be the friendliest dry cleaning process ever. No hazardous chemicals are used, so there’s nothing to dirty the air, contaminate the soil, or pollute the water. And unlike perchloroethylene, which is used by most dry cleaners and can be very hard on fabric, The GreenEarth process cleans with pure liquid silicone, which can be safely disposed of.

Pure liquid silicone is, in essence, liquefied sand. This is the same safe, natural sand the earth has been creating for over six billion years. It is chemically inert, meaning it won’t interact with fabric. It just carries the detergent to your clothes and then carries away the dirt and oil. Whites won’t yellow and colors won’t fade, no matter how often they are cleaned.

For home cleaning of fabrics, we recommend and sell Le Blanc’s® Linen Wash products, which includes: Linen Wash®, DownWash®, Towel Wash, Silk & Lingerie Wash, and Laundry Wash. All of these products are known for removing extremely difficult stains from luxury fabrics without the use of harmful chemicals. They contain no bleach, no caustics, and no phosphates; all are biodegradable and sulphate-free. LinenWash’s neutral pH balance makes it safe to use on linens, cotton, synthetics, and blends. Almost all of our vendors recommend LinenWash® products.

Le Blanc® does not recommend using the same soap for everything. Each of their formulas is different and is made specifically for laundering certain fibers. There are even special formulas that are fragrance-free and allergen-free and some that are made especially for men and children. We have used and tested LinenWash® for years and highly recommend it. The cost is about $1 per load.

Because Egyptian cotton has a luxury cachet, many customers ask if a sheet or duvet cover they are interested in is made from that type of cotton. The Egyptian government is making that information more accessible by recently launching an initiative that would lead to the licensing of 100 percent Egyptian-cotton home fashions to make sure that products labeled 100% Egyptian cotton really are. “Much of the Egyptian cotton used around the world is actually a blend, even though it says only ‘Egyptian cotton’ on the packaging,” according to Cotton Egypt Association executive director Sahar Mounir. “We’re looking to license the name ‘Egyptian cotton,’ and we have created a logo that can be used only on products that are 100 percent Egyptian cotton.” Mounir said Cotton Egypt has established a testing and monitoring program to ensure that a product labeled 100 percent Egyptian cotton really is.

We always educate our customers by pointing out that there are different qualities of Egyptian cotton and that the spinning, weaving, and finishing processes also determine the quality and feel of any cotton sheeting product.

Egyptian cotton is considered the best because it produces the longest, smoothest threads of any of the types of cotton. It is based on a longer fiber and is softer and more durable than other cottons. Blends or derivatives can be any combination of Egyptian cotton and some other cotton not grown in Egypt. According to Fairchild’s Dictionary of Textiles, “the U.S. has crossed Egyptian cotton with American cotton since 1903.”

75 percent of exported Egyptian cotton is inferior to American Pima cotton, according to Matt Laughlin, executive vice president of the Supima Association of America. Laughlin says, “it’s not as long, it’s not as fine, and it doesn’t hold up as well. They dilute the quality.” The Supima Associate licenses their products and has their own logo.

We actually test our competitions high thread count sheets and cases, so we really know what something will feel like after washing and ironing. We invite customers to feel a sheet or duvet cover before they buy it and tell them that we guarantee that it will feel the same after many washings. We do stock sheets with thread counts of up to 1020 and also offer 300-count sheets that feel better than many others with a higher thread count.

Always make sure that you can return a sheet or duvet cover if it does not feel as good or hold up as long as you expected. We are always happy to send you a swatch of any of our sheeting fabrics so you can feel the quality for yourself before buying.

Yesterday Mikhael Romain, a design editor from the magazine California Home + Design, came to the store to interview me on what’s new in table linens for Fall 2008. She wanted to see the newest, latest thing and I explained that fashions in table settings don’t change quite as quickly as clothing styles do. Fewer people set a fancy table these days or even use fabric table linens for every meal. When people do shop for table linens, it is most often for a holiday occasion or for an evening of entertaining.

Twenty or twenty-five years ago, customers would buy sets of coordinating print mats and napkins for the breakfast table and white linen damask or embroidered tablecloths for formal dinners. But lifestyles have changed. Now we sell a lot of hard mats (textured vinyl that resembles leather or straw cloth) in solid colors that can be dressed up or down depending on the choice of napkin.

Combine a hard mat with a striped cotton napkin and it works for casual meals. Dress it up with a linen napkin or a silk like synthetic and a beaded napkin ring, and it will serve for all but the most formal occasions.

That said, what’s new in table linens? Spice tones are always popular for fall and we have hard mats, napkins and cotton damask tablecloths in colors like pumpkin, paprika and topaz. Subtle metallic shades, such as pewter, bronze and antique gold are featured in table linens for the holidays.

Choosing table settings to complement your china or to coordinate with the dining room, rather than following the latest fashion color, is still our recommendation. Stop in the store anytime to see what’s new, and don’t forget to measure your table before you come. Maybe with the growth of the “Slow Food” movement, we will start gathering around the dining table again, instead of eating on the run.

Shelley Rideout
Buyer