Best Flannel Sheets: Weight, Pilling and Where Made

Eddie Bauer's flannel sets are the familiar cabin kind: 100 percent cotton, brushed, in plaids, woodland prints and solids such as this grey. The queen set is a flat sheet of 102 by 90 inches, a fully elasticized fitted sheet and two standard pillowcases.

The maker asks for a cold, gentle wash with like colors, a low tumble dry, and no bleach or fabric softener. That care matters more with flannel than with other sheets, because heat and softener are what break down the nap fastest.

Eddie Bauer does not publish a weight or a country of origin on the listing, and that is the reason it sits at the bottom of the range. Buy it for a guest room or a child's bed. Skip it if you want a set to last a decade.

The catch. No published weight, and budget flannel pills sooner than the heavier Portuguese sets.

At 180 GSM, about 5.3 ounces, this is heavier than Lands' End's well-known 5 ounce flannel and costs a good deal less. It is made in Portugal from 100 percent cotton, and the color is dyed into the yarn before weaving rather than printed on the surface, so the heathered shades hold through washing.

The fitted sheet has an extra-deep pocket for mattresses up to 21 inches, which makes it the right choice for a pillow top or a bed with a thick topper. The set is a flat sheet, fitted sheet and two pillowcases.

Tribeca Living does not say on the listing whether both sides are brushed, and it is a newer name without the long record of the sets further up. Skip it if you want a plain white; the yarn-dyed range runs to heathers.

The catch. The listing does not say whether the back is brushed as well as the face.

Coyuchi's Cloud Brushed flannel weighs 6 ounces per square yard, about 203 GSM, which makes it the heaviest set here. It is 100 percent GOTS certified organic cotton, made and woven in Portugal, and Coyuchi says its own weaving and brushing process reduces pilling and shrinking.

The queen set is a flat sheet of 90 by 106 inches, a fitted sheet with a 15 inch pocket and two standard pillowcases of 20 by 32 inches. Coyuchi recommends a cold, gentle wash, a plant-based detergent without bleach or whiteners, and wool dryer balls in place of softener.

Six ounces is a lot of cloth. For a warm sleeper or a heated bedroom it can be too much. Buy it for a cold house, a drafty room or a bed by a window.

The catch. Too warm for some sleepers, and the price is close to double the Lands' End set.

Boll & Branch makes its flannel from long-staple, certified organic cotton, woven by artisans in Portugal. The finish is the story: the cloth is brushed and then sheared three times, which leaves a smooth, velvety surface with fewer loose fibers to pill. The sets are GOTS certified and tested to OEKO-TEX Standard 100.

The fitted sheet has full elastic banding and a deep pocket, listed at 17 inches on Amazon and for mattresses up to 18 inches on the maker's site, the most generous here. Boll & Branch asks for a cold wash, a low or medium dry, and no bleach or softener, and warns that some shrinkage is natural.

Boll & Branch does not publish a weight in ounces or GSM, so you are paying for fiber, finish and fit rather than heft. Its own site has usually been cheaper than Amazon; compare before buying.

The catch. No published weight, and the Amazon price has run well above the maker's own.