Everything You Need to Know About Bed Threads and Our 100% Flax Linen

If you’re on the hunt for the best bed sheets that are soft, durable, breathable, cosy, environmentally-friendly and affordable, you may have stumbled across our 100% French flax linen bed sheets. Welcome!

Here at Bed Threads, we’re committed to helping you get the sleep of your dreams, night after night, all while giving your entire bedroom a Pinterest-worthy uplift. Want to know more about our brand and products before investing? Here’s everything you need to know about Bed Threads and our dreamy 100% French flax linen.

Everything You Need to Know About Bed Threads and Our 100% Flax Linen

Is Bed Threads Australian?

Bed Threads is an Australian owned and operated company and our head office is based in Sydney, New South Wales. It was founded by Genevieve Rosen and Alan Biller in 2017 with the brand's first drop selling out in three weeks.

The 100% French Flax Linen Bed Threads uses is sourced in France and is ethically manufactured in China by a certified factory. The Bed Threads philosophy is to provide everyone with high-quality, simple to wash, affordable, environmentally-friendly and buttery-soft 100% linen bedding that promotes peaceful sleep, night after night.

Is Bed Threads ethical?

Bed Threads is committed to making the space and sleep of your dreams a reality, in a way that’s right for you and the planet. We are a fully carbon neutral company and our products are shipped in a 100% recyclable cardboard box.

Our 100% French Flax Linen and our 100% Mongolian Cashmere have both been awarded the Standard 100 certification from internationally-recognised textile testing company OEKO-TEX (aka the Zürich-based International Association for Research and Testing in the Field of Textile and Leather Ecology). This means our products are free from everything you don’t want in your home (think: formaldehyde, pentachlorophenol, nickel and more).

We also donate $1 from each order to charity through a partnership with i=Change.

What is French flax?

Flax linen is a plant-derived material that originates from flax or linum usitatissimum. Flax is actually considered a vegetable so you can be sure you’re making the most of your sleep health when you purchase our Bed Threads.

The cellulose fibre in the stem of the flax plant is harvested and spun to produce flax linen or to harvest flax oil. This cellulose fibre, commonly known as a ‘bast fibre’, is a fibre that is recovered from the inner bark of a plant, similar to how we extract hemp and rattan.

Flax is cultivated in many parts of the world, but the best flax grows along the flax belt - a stretch of Europe that spans across Belgium, France and Holland. We source our flax from France, so you can rest assured it’s 100% pure and 100% superior.

How is flax linen made?

Flax harvesting is a slow, time-consuming process - it takes roughly 100 days to produce flax linen from seed planting to harvesting. Flax needs to be shallowly planted, in damp soil and only grown in cool temperatures. Once it turns yellow or brown, the flax is ready to harvest.

At this stage, the woody bark that contains the cellulose fibres is chemically retted or decomposed, using water in order to retrieve the useful part of the plant. The flax plant is then squeezed, dried, combed and spun - a process through which the stronger or longer flax fibres called ‘line’ or ‘dressed flax’ - are separated from the weak ‘stricks’.

This separation is integral: the dressed flax will produce more luxurious, hardwearing linen - the kind that ensures your Bed Threads will outlast their wearers and be passed down as future heirlooms. Finally, these dressed flax are spun and dyed to produce your special bed linen.

How do you wash Bed Threads?

When you receive your Bed Threads linen set, it’s best to give them a wash before sleeping in them. While our linen is pre-washed for softness, we suggest washing it as soon as it arrives at your doorstep.

The perfect way to wash them is in cold or lukewarm water with a gentle detergent. Avoid hot water, bleach or harsh cleaning products (including fabric softeners) that might damage the delicate linen fibres and ruin the soft feeling of your sheets. Here, we’ve rounded up the six best eco-friendly washing detergents that’ll aid your linen’s longevity. All our Threads come in a 100% flax linen bag, so make sure you wash this, too.

If you’re inclined to a sneaky glass of wine in bed (or chocolate) and have accidentally stained your sheets, it’s best to try and remove these stains as soon as possible. You can do this by soaking your sheets or dabbing the stained area with cold water and baking soda as soon as possible.

Can you put 100% flax linen in the dryer?

Tumble drying is abrasive on the delicate linen fibres, and will ensure excessive shedding continues. If you really want to tumble dry, try drying your sheets on a lower heat setting and for a short period of time, and complete the drying process by hanging up your linen on the line. But really, the best thing to do is air dry from start to finish. This will prolong the lifetime of your linen sheets. Washing them on a cold machine wash and then hanging them out to dry will ensure that your sheets stay fresh and relatively shed-free overtime.

What is the best thread count for bedding?

We often associate a high thread count with softer and more luxurious bedding, right? However, it’s crucial not to immediately dismiss bedding with a low thread count as it’s not always a sure marker of quality. For example, when it comes to the thread count of linen, it’s usually much lower than that of cotton due to the fact the natural linen fibres (created from the flax plant) are much thicker than that of cotton. Due to this, our signature Bed Threads 100% French Flax Linen Bedding has a thread count of 170.

So, when you’re looking to invest in pure linen bedding, you need to consider its GSM. GSM stands for grams per square metre and refers to the metric measurement of the weight of a fabric. The higher the GSM of a fabric, the denser the fabric will be. Bed Threads 100% French flax linen sits at 170 GSM, which is the optimum weight to ensure your bedding is soft and cosy the second you use it, all while being durable enough to ensure it lasts for years (and years).

What are the coolest sheets to sleep on?

Sheets that boast thread counts in the 800 to 1200 range can’t be produced organically and because they’re synthetic, they trap heat inside of them. On the other hand, linen is a 100% natural material and one of the lightest fabrics on the market, therefore making it the coolest material to sleep on. Moreover, the structure of the fibre makes for a non-restrictive fabric that will billow around your body rather than tightly adhere to it. Linen can absorb up to 20% of its own weight before feeling damp, so you sweaty sleepers need never worry about excess moisture. Plus, with every little bit of breeze that blows through your open window, linen absorbs the air to dry out and cool down even further.

Thanks to its low GSM or grams per square metre - ranking in at an ideal score of 170 - our Bed Threads sheets are the most breathable and lightweight solutions to sleep on.

Egyptian cotton vs linen: what’s better?

High-end cotton like Pima and Egyptian round out the strongest and most expensive kinds of cotton, with the least chance of pulling or lint accumulation. Generally speaking, cotton fabrics are relatively durable and chemically stable, meaning they can withstand the chemicals in human sweat, soaps and detergents. This is owed to the moisture-absorbent nature of cotton that will wick away any trace of moisture from your skin. However, the significant downside to cotton is that its non-organic variety can be extremely draining on our environment - from the pesticides and insecticides, to the compounds used during the production and dying process. These chemicals inevitably find themselves in our water, soil and air if not disposed of safely. Moreover, cotton requires huge amounts of water for production. In fact, it can take over 20,000 litres of water to produce a single kilogram of cotton, from which only one t-shirt and a single pair of jeans may be made.

Linen, on the other hand, is as simple to look after as cotton and comes with more benefits. Unlike cotton (which may become threadbare as its fibres weaken), linen is much more durable and improves with each wash, meaning it’s better than cotton when it comes to longevity and cost-per-wear. Furthermore, linen demands less resources in its production, making it a comparatively eco-friendlier and more sustainable fabric than cotton.

Where does Bed Threads ship to?

Bed Threads is an online Australian brand and deliver worldwide. We provide free shipping across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the USA. For the rest of the world, shipping is $60AUD. We ship to Canada via our US site.

For international orders, delivery times will vary depending on location and local customs. Please see below for estimated delivery times after your order has been dispatched.

• New Zealand: 4 – 6 business days
• Asia Pacific: 6 – 14 business days
• Western Europe: 7 – 16 business days
• North America & Middle East: 7 – 16 business days
• Rest of World: 7 – 16 business days

For more information about shipping and returns, head here.

For more information on linen, here are the 7 biggest benefits of sleeping in 100% flax linen.