What made that good old cotton so good?
July 6, 2019 10:54 AM   Subscribe

When my daughter was a baby, I got a huge amount of hand-me-downs from generous friends. I pretty much never bought clothes for my daughter until she was about 3 and then went mostly resale clothing for her - better quality for cheaper prices. There's been one outfit, though, from this time, that continues to haunt me for its quality. It got spit on, food on, poo on and it just went through the wash beautifully and with zero stains. I have questions....

It was a white, quilted, cotton onesie sleeper from Ralph Lauren. It felt so fancy and luxurious and hilarious for something that was just going to get messed on and then outgrown. Similar to this one but no ruffle collar.

I get that nice cotton will be softer and the weave can make something more durable. But why didn't it stain? I have stuff that I get her from Target that is obviously cheaply made and it stains without any good reason. Our dryer needs some maintenance as it seems to "grab" corners of things and put burns on them. But somehow never the "pricey" or well-made stuff. IKEA sheets come out of the first dry with brown dryer burns. My (again Ralph Lauren) sheets never have.* They are softer than IKEA, of course, but have also been exceptionally durable, maintaining their look and color for well over 15 years.

My question: how could higher quality mean less staining? Less "grabbing" in the dryer? How did that quilted white onesie survive multiple children and still look and feel as good as new?

*All this stuff is old. I feel like you almost cannot purchase quality anymore. Or, rather, the stuff that used to seem expensive is now still expensive but more terrible.
posted by amanda to Home & Garden (8 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
The linked onesie is cotton and polyester, and polyester is stain-resistant. Tighter weaves in the cloth (quilted fabrics, higher-end linens) = would-be liquid stains tend to bead up instead of absorb, and the thicker material may mean the dryer isn't able to grab hold for burns. Agree with you that newer stuff is often lousy "fast fashion" whatever the price point -- a slubbed cotton t-shirt is like a pre-made cleaning rag.
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:05 AM on July 6, 2019 [2 favorites]


Yeah, I'd bet it was cotton-poly blend. I have some sheets from my mom's 70's stash that are similar, and they're soft but thick and creamy, wrinkle-resistant, and even blood washes out like it was never there.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:15 AM on July 6, 2019 [1 favorite]


In general, better quality fabrics use a longer staple of cotton, wool, or linen, literally each individual fiber is longer. It may be tighter spun, which seems to make it wear well. Might also have been treated with something. I shop almost exclusively at thrift shops and pick out particular nice brands because the fabric feels better. We had a magic onesie that held up and didn't stain, too.
posted by theora55 at 1:01 PM on July 6, 2019 [2 favorites]


I'm just chiming in to say that we were gifted a Ralph Lauren onesie for our oldest daughter and had the same experience. It was insanely soft and warm but also much sturdier than all her other clothes, and it never stained no matter how much abuse it took. It was for sure 100% cotton. If I'm remembering right it was a light gray color, footed, and had snap.buttons up one leg and then a little asymetrically up to a sort of miniature shawl collar. It's on at least its fourth baby at this point and as far as I know it's still going strong.
posted by saladin at 1:18 PM on July 6, 2019 [4 favorites]


Might it have been Scotchgarded by its previous owner?
posted by ardgedee at 5:17 PM on July 6, 2019


Response by poster: I don’t think so. I knew the previous owners and I don’t think that’s a thing they would even think to do. Plus, I’m just really curious how cotton fabrics can be so different in their ability to withstand stains and wear and tear. There’s another example in my bathroom: inexpensive towels in use for about 5 years, starting to get grimy looking even after washing. The Williams Sonoma splurge-on-a-sale towels are going on ten years and still look great. They both seem to be terry-loop kind of towels and yet one is ready to be trashed.
posted by amanda at 8:48 PM on July 6, 2019


Echoing that better quality textiles will have higher thread counts, be made with extra long staple cotton, and may employ more expensive weaving and finishing techniques.

I had a set of Lauren sheets that I loved and only just recently replaced after about 14 years of use — they were plain cotton without any sateen nonsense happening (I can’t stand that zippy texture) but they had a sort of herringbone weave to them which is in part why they wore so well.

I couldn’t ever find them again, except a few incomplete separates on eBay.
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:30 PM on July 7, 2019 [1 favorite]


I pretty much only buy high-end (mostly used) clothing for my kids because it looks cute and stands up against anything they throw at it, stain-wise. We get way more wears out of something slightly higher priced than something from Old Navy or Target.
posted by Jaclyn at 4:57 PM on July 11, 2019


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