There are few things in life better than sliding into a comfortable bed dressed with freshly laundered, soft and organic cotton bedding.
Good quality sheets are an investment but since we spend nearly a third of your life between those sheets, it’s important to get them right. Not only does our bedding feel good to the touch, but it also feels good to support the small artisans and factories that create these textiles sustainably.
Our cotton bedding is grown organically from the seed, soil and all farming practices. The practice of farming our organic cotton builds up organic and natural matter through crop rotation, intercropping and compost which helps retain water more efficiently. This also helps maintain a balance between pests and their natural predators though healthy soil.
Organic cotton is often hand picked, especially in developing countries, without the use of defoliants, machinery or chemicals. Hand picking also reduces waste.
Before the cotton fibers can be manufactured from cotton plants, several cleaning steps are required. After the plants have been processed at a cotton gin, the product is distributed to fiber producers. The fiber manufacturer further removes plant material and other debris by dividing and carding the lint. The waste from this process is a mixture of stems, leaves, soils, and lint.
Cotton is also an important food source for humans and animals. Cotton is comprised of 40% fiber and 60% seed by weight. Once separated in the gin, the fibers go to textile mills, while the seed and various by-products are used for animal feed and for human food, mostly in the form of cottonseed oil. Cottonseed, which is rich in oil and high in protein, is a common ingredient in cookies, potato chips, salad dressings, baked goods and other foods.
The cotton fibers are then woven into threads and the threads are woven into bedding sheets or pillowcases using a loom.
Not only is our cotton bedding sustainably-made, our packaging is entirely re-usable and sustainable. Most bedding sold today contains a cardboard piece in the folded sheets to keep the shape of the bedding perfectly flat. We have bypassed this wasteful method, so our bedding does not contain unnecessary cardboard inserts. We also package all of our bedding in beautiful, reusable boxes that customers have used to store other linens in their linen closets, candles, makeup and even just general under-the-bed storage.
These tedious and more expensive practices are all worth it with future generations in mind. With every purchase, YaYa & Co. will plant one tree in the Amazon Rain Forest, the largest ecosystem in the world to help protect and save it for future generations.