Wool is synonymous with luxury, quality, and comfort. When choosing what bedding you’d like for your home, invest in your slumber with wool. With unbeatable elegance and a premium feel, wool bedding offers endless benefits—it’s just a matter of finding a company you can trust.
As you shop for your wool comforter or wool mattress topper, there are a few key factors worth researching before you hit the “purchase” button. Don’t fret - we’re here to help! With over 130 years of experience under our belt, we know just what to look for to help you find the best bedding.
Why We Love Wool Bedding
It doesn’t matter whether you’re only using a wool comforter or have a complete setup with a wool mattress topper—wool offers unbeatable comfort. Between its natural temperature-regulating properties, its inherent breathability, and its helpful moisture-wicking surface, you can sleep sweat-free and safe and sound on wool, no matter the time of year.
It’s also naturally hypoallergenic and resistant to bacteria, which can help you soothe pesky allergies and asthma. When you make the bed with a wool comforter, you can say goodbye to waking up in the morning with a stuffy nose!
Wool comforters are also incredibly easy to clean and care for—and they need to be washed less often than popular bedding alternatives, such as cotton. Every few months, when you feel your wool bedding is in need of a refresh, you can hang them out to dry and let the air and UV lights do the work or do a wash and rinse in your bathtub. It’s simple!
3 Types of Wool Bedding You’ll Want to Buy
The way your bed looks and feels has a drastic impact on how you feel about the time you spend in your bedroom. Create your wool bed set from top to bottom by investing in premium wool options for every layer of your bedding:
1. Wool mattress toppers: filled with Climate Beneficial wool batting and covered in 100% organic cotton fabric, our wool toppers enable you to add an extra cushiony layer to elevate your night’s sleep.
2. Wool comforters: snuggle up under a breathable comforter constructed of a cozy wool batting filling and an organic cotton percale exterior that can be used with or without a duvet cover.
3. Wool pillows: available in a variety of sizes to fit any bed, each wool pillow is filled just right with wool, compressing about 1/3 of its original size to give you the perfect balance between firm support and plush cushioning.
8 Factors to Take into Consideration When Buying Wool Bedding
When you begin your journey of shopping for wool bedding, it’s best not to make any rash decisions. Proper research on the company you’re considering, from its practices to how each wool comforter or wool mattress topper is constructed, will help ensure you get the best wool products around. There’s many different ways to create wool products, from where the wool is from to if it is treated, it all can impact the quality of the wool bedding. As you browse various wool bedding products, take these eight factors into consideration:
1. Where Does the Wool Originate
Everyone’s heard the fun statistics that a few countries have more sheep than people, but did you know that the location of the sheep has an immense effect on the quality of the wool comforters and pillows they produce? The ranch that sheep were raised and sheared on can change the overall look, feel, and longevity of the wool’s fibers. Pasture management, available nutrition, health, and shearing tactics are all worth looking into to determine if a ranch is a trustworthy source of high-quality wool.
Pro tip: Frankenmuth Woolen Mill is proud to source wool from humanely treated sheep from small ranchers around the country.
What is Climate Beneficial Wool?
Climate Beneficial Wool is a verified wool that comes from ranches that care about their effect on the land and climate around them. From agricultural practices set in place to keep the soil healthy to carbon farming and more, the sheep at these farms experience the best of the best. It’s one of the highest quality and most sustainable options that can be used for creating wool bedding—which is exactly why Frankenmuth Woolen Mill sources it!
2. What Type of Sheep Does the Wool Come From?
Did you know that each breed of sheep produces distinctly different wool? Things like fiber length, fineness, and overall resilience can all be affected—something that becomes especially evident the longer you own and use wool bedding. The grazing conditions for the sheep, the climate, and the type of sheep the wool is sourced from are all crucial elements to consider when looking at wool products.
Which Breed of Sheep Produces the Best Wool?
People around the globe agree that Merino sheep produce the highest quality wool. With an ultra-fine diameter and a famously soft and warm feel, Dorset wool is most often used in clothing.
3. What is the Wool’s Grade?
Wool grade matters more than one may assume, heavier wools and coarse wools are best for rugs or weaving. When heavier wool is used in bedding, the coarse fibers will poke through the bedding fabric. Finer wools are also able to poke through fabric due to how fine they are. Medium grade works best for wool bedding as it’s fluffier than fine wool but won’t migrate and beard. As you shop, think of it like a thread count system and pay attention to the grade you see—especially if you’re buying raw wool for whatever reason. Though specificities depend on which grading system is being used, wool grades are typically based on the average fiber diameter, overall uniformity, and how the fleece feels to handle.
Grading Scale for Wool Comforters:
Wool can be graded using the American Blood Grade System, the Micron Count System, or the Spinning Count System. The Blood System is the most popular choice for USDA-approved wool, with grades such as:
- Fine
- 1/2 blood
- 3/8 blood
- 1/4 blood
- Low 1/4 blood
- Common
- Braid
4. Is the Wool Chemically Treated?
Unfortunately, a large amount of wool bedding companies use chemical treatments during processing. From chlorination to make wool washable (something we frown upon) to super washing in an attempt to coat fibers with polymer resins to avoid felting, these seemingly helpful treatments can actually ruin a quality wool item in the long run. Chemical treatments also remove the natural breathability of wool because the fibers are coated during the process. As you shop for your wool bedding, look at the fine print to see if the wool mattress toppers and wool comforters have been made with unnecessary chemicals.
If a company is transparent with its wool, it will have a section revealing its process. Read carefully to see if they use chemicals during the washing and carding steps, as those are the two most likely steps in processing to be affected. At Frankenmuth Woolen Mill, we use biodegradable soap and hot water (180 degrees Fahrenheit) from the Great Lakes to thoroughly wash our wool and opt for traditional carding machines that use steam in place of synthetics.
5. What is the Outer Layer of the Bedding Made From?
As raw, exposed wool can sometimes be a tad scratchy, wool is rarely the external layer of bedding; when you shop, it’s important to look into the exterior layer to ensure the outer material is one you like the feel of. The chosen fabric can affect the overall durability, breathability, and warmth of your wool bedding, so choose carefully!
The best and most popular material for the comforter’s outer layer is 100% organic cotton percale. At Frankenmuth Woolen Mill, we use a traditional hand-tied method to ensure the internal layer of wool remains in place through your years of use. If, for some reason, you aren’t happy with the color, you can always put your wool comforter inside a duvet cover, which gives you a chance to customize the look of your space.
6. Is the Stitching of the Wool Bedding Sturdy?
Wool fibers are prized for being extremely durable, so it’s vital that you choose to purchase from a company that puts the time and care into strong and dependable stitching. The last thing you’d want after spending money on quality wool bedding is for them to fall apart after just a couple of months or years of use.
Investigate the material used to tie together the batting to the exterior layer. Paying attention to this one small detail could make or break the longevity of your wool products.
7. Choose the Correct Size of Wool Comforter
Not all wool comforter companies offer a complete range of sizes. Before you set your sights on a design and buy the matching wool body pillow, make sure it carries a size with measurements that will fit your bed.
If you want that perfectly elegant, oversized look, think about buying a wool comforter that is one size larger than the standard size of your bed. That way, there will be extra material hanging off the sides, creating a dreamy sanctuary for you to sleep in night after night.
Our Wool Comforter Sizing:
- Lap: 45” x 72”
- Twin: 72” x 90”
- Double: 81” x 90”
- Queen: 90” x 90”
- King: 108” x 90”
- California King: 104” x 94”
- Oversized King: 116” by 108”
8. Do They Offer Wool Cleaning and Care Services?
Though caring for your wool comforters and wool mattress toppers at home is quick and simple, the best of the best companies will offer you high-quality, professional-level cleaning services to keep your wool looking and feeling fresh for years to come. If you are hesitant to try the hand washing and line drying methods for yourself, consider visiting us at Frankenmuth Woolen Mill (or mailing in your wool bedding)—we’ll give your soiled wool bedding a good refresh.
FAQ About Investing in Quality Wool Bedding
Once you’ve taken all our recommended factors into consideration and bought your own wool comforter and pillow set, it’s natural to have questions. With over 130 years of experience in wool, The Frankenmuth Woolen Mill is happy to provide our expertise with answers to the most common questions we hear.
How Long Does Wool Bedding Last?
When compared to cheaper alternatives, the lifespan of wool bedding just can’t be beat. When cared for correctly, wool mattress toppers, comforters, and even pillows can last at least 15 years without wavering in quality and shape. That even goes for our wool pet beds! We’ve done repairs on wool comforters that are over 20 years old and still are in great shape; it’s all about caring for your wool bedding.
Do You Need to Put a Fitted Sheet Over a Wool Mattress Topper?
As the mattress topper is just designed to give an added cushion layer to the top of your mattress, you should consider it part of the mattress, not as a replacement for a fitted sheet. Invest in a natural fiber set of sheets and protect your wool mattress topper in style.
Can You Wash Wool Bedding?
If a company claims its wool bedding can be washed in the normal washing machine, it’s most likely been treated. Good, quality wool mattress toppers and comforters must be washed by hand with like-temperature water cycles or hung to air dry (sun-drying is an added bonus). Machine-washable wool is available, it just lacks most of the benefits of why you’d invest in wool bedding in the first place.
Upgrading your bedding with wool layers is more than a spur-of-the-moment choice–it’s a way of life. When you get hooked on the look, feel, and endless list of benefits that wool bedding offers, you’ll want to outfit every bedroom of the house in matching sets. Invest in quality wool products you can trust with the designs available in-store or online from Frankenmuth Woolen Mill and change how you sleep for good.