When we first started Cotton and Olive back in September 2012, we began with one product: peshtemal hammam towels.
Since then, we have added hammam bath towels, hammam robes, fully-certified organic cotton range for adults and children, and bedspreads & throws.
Although peshtemal hammam towels always remained at the core of what we do, all our products are made and sourced with love and great passion.
In this month’s blog, I would like to give you some insight into our cotton bedspreads and why they are special to the Cotton and Olive collection.
Here at Cotton and Olive we love the 100% cotton fabric our peshtemals are made from so much that essentially all of our products are different variations of the same fabric.
For instance, our bath towels are similar to our peshtemals with a low pile on one side of the towel whilst the other side of it is flat-woven peshtemal hammam towel texture to give an option for those who favour cosiness in their towels while still having the same lightweight characteristics of our original peshtemals.
It does not stop there though, even our bedspreads are the very same peshtemal hammam fabric employing the very same weaving technique yet woven in larger sizes with thicker cotton yarns for extra durability & cosiness.
Our labour of love
When we first decided to add bedspreads to our collection, all the bedspreads in the market were woven exactly the same way with tassels on the longer end of the bedspread. This looked wrong to us to see the tassels at the ends of the bedspread rather than the sides! What was wrong with this?
For one, it is a lot more aesthetically pleasing to have the tassels along the side of the bed. It allows the beauty of the tassels to be displayed rather than being tucked away in the footboard or under the pillows.
Second, having the tassels along the side of the bed is a lot more comfortable than having the tassels tickle your face throughout the night or having your toes get tangled in the strands.
With this in mind, we set out to find a weaver who would make a bedspread with the tassels on the side; but this turned out to be a lot harder than we thought.
To start with, it was not easy to find extra-large looms to weave these extra-large bedspreads (some needed to be 270 cm in width for Super King Size bedspreads).
The majority of the looms only allowed the bedspreads to be woven a maximum up to 130cm in width. The looms with extra-large length beyond 130 cm were rare and involved a special design work but we finally found a loom which was able to do this.
Our Accent Cotton Bedspread was the first product to come out of these XL looms (with sizes up to 220 cm in width) and they sold really well.
This encouraged us to carry on with this new range and to add different types of bedspreads to the collection.
Last year, we were even able to loom our new range of bedspreads Linear and Fusion Bedspreads up to 260 cm in width with tassels along the sides thanks to the collaboration and hard-work of our supplier.
Having the tassels fall to the sides of the bed may seem like a minor detail, but these minor details are part of our labour of love and make our products stand out among the crowd.
Perfect to keep you warm and cosy with the upcoming winter months, we are positive that you will fall in love with these bedspreads.
Keep well..
Ilgen
