Waterbed Sheets Have Changed

Early waterbed sheets were once available only in a four pocket design. The top sheet was sewn to the foot of the bottom sheet forming a single unit. If you have not been shopping for sheets for your hard sided waterbed in awhile, you may notice that the design has changed.

Many waterbed sheet manufacturers now offer sets that have a separate bottom and top sheet. Now you might wonder how the top sheet can be separated from the bottom sheet without it slipping around the bed as you sleep. The answer is simple. Manufacturers have added an extra set of pockets to the top sheet. The pockets hold the top sheet securely to the bed. Separating the sheets has several advantages over the old design.

Quality waterbed sheets with a separate top sheet and a six pocket design offer an excellent fit. A separate top sheet means you can mix and match colors to coordinate with different decorating styles. General laundering is easier since you do not have to wrestle with all that fabric making folding and storage more convenient.

Less expensive waterbed sheets often are not stitched very well. Poor quality stitching was most evident where the top sheet was sewn to the bottom sheet. I can speak from personal experience when it comes to this problem. The stitching would pull apart or worse yet, the fabric would pull apart at the point of the seam. Since waterbed sheets can be expensive, I would end up having to repair the seam rather than discard the sheets.

Through some trial and error, I discovered the pitfalls of buying cheap sheets. If the set of waterbed sheets you buy does not properly fit the mattress, you are more likely to see some problems. Some cheap waterbed sheets will be made with just a little less fabric in order to save money. If you notice that your new sheets do not fit very well after being laundered, it may mean that the manufacture used a fabric that was not preshrunk. The sheets shrink in the wash and the sheets will not fit correctly.

The corner pockets may not be deep enough or have enough elastic material to fit securely on and under the mattress. Waking up to find that the mattress has slipped off the corners can be more than a little annoying. Again, the stitching may pull out or otherwise fail at critical points.

Another design available waterbed sheets uses a plastic framing the serves to hold the corners of the sheet in place. These frames are sometimes referred to as poles. The plastic poles are usually inserted through a loop or pocket sewn into the edge of the corner pocket. The weight of the mattress is used to hold the pole in place and securely keeps the mattress corner from slipping off the corner.

An alternative to the corner pole option are corner straps that are clipped to an existing waterbed sheet set. These corner clips act in much the same way as the poles and hold the corners of the sheet securely in place.

Locating quality waterbed sheets is easier than ever before thanks to online shopping.