Bed Linen: A Worked Request for Quote, Line by Line

In June 2026 a British home sewist asked a forum what to line her dress with. She'd bought Indian block-print cotton and found it "sheer and needs lining" (r/sewing, June 2026 (opens in a new tab)). A Jaipur local had explained why, in an older thread, and it's nothing to do with cutting corners: "block printing is easier on that cloth. Colours are absorbed easily" (r/jaipur, October 2023 (opens in a new tab)).

So the printer chooses a light cloth because it prints well. That's a good choice for a summer dress and a poor one for a duvet cover, and the printer won't know which you're making unless you say. Bed linen goes wrong this way more than any other. Nobody cheats. The buyer just never wrote down the one line that mattered. This page writes a whole request for quote for one product, a printed cotton duvet cover set, and explains each line. It works for any sourcing country. The India-specific view (towns, duty by border) is on bed linen from India.

The Request For Quote

Here it is as you'd send it, followed by why each line is there.

Product: duvet cover with two matching pillowcases, sizes as per the attached chart (centimetres, with tolerances). Base cloth: 100% cotton percale, woven, minimum weight stated in GSM after finishing, measured on the finished fabric. Please state the yarn count and the construction (ends and picks per inch) you will use. Print: your print method (block, screen, rotary or digital), printed on the finished base above. Colours matched to our physical standard under daylight. Construction: envelope or button closure as per drawing, French seams, no piping or embroidery unless we confirm in writing. Finish: pre-shrunk. Maximum shrinkage after five washes at 40°C, stated in percent for length and width. Labels: fibre content, care, country of origin and our brand label, wording attached. Tests: a report on the bulk fabric for the restricted dyes and colourfastness we list, from a lab we both accept. Packing: each set folded with card, in a bag, cartons by size, carton marks as attached. Please quote: per set, your MOQ per print and per colour, your sampling time and whether any step (weaving, printing, stitching) is done outside your own unit.

Base cloth

This is the line our sewist needed. "Cotton" isn't a fabric, and neither is "percale" on its own. Ask for the weave, the weight after finishing and the yarn. If the maker prints on bought-in greige cloth, which is normal for small printers, ask to see the base before it's printed, because once it's printed you can't tell a light cloth from a heavy one by colour.

The line also asks for ends and picks per inch instead of a thread count. That's deliberate. We couldn't find a counting method that the trade agrees on, and a high count can be built from plied yarns in ways that look better on a label than on a bed. Asking for the construction gets you numbers a lab can check. If you must sell on thread count, write the counting method next to the number and keep the lab report.

Print

Ask which print method you're getting, because it changes your calendar. A Bagru block-print studio described its work as relying "entirely on human hands and weather (sun drying)" (r/IndiaBusiness, September 2026 (opens in a new tab)), which means the monsoon is part of your lead time. That's the charm of the product and a planning fact at the same time. If your launch date is fixed, say so in the RFQ and let the maker tell you which method can meet it.

Construction, and the piping question

Here's the line that changes your duty. "No piping or embroidery unless we confirm in writing" isn't about looks. In the US, a trim moves a cotton sheet from 6.7% to 20.9% (our first intelligence point). Makers add piped edges to make a set look richer, often without asking, because their domestic or European customers like it. If you sell in the US, decide on purpose and tell your customs broker which version you're importing.

Finish

Shrinkage matters more on a duvet cover than on a T-shirt, because the cover has to fit a duvet that doesn't shrink. Give a wash temperature and a number of washes, and ask for the maximum shrinkage in percent. Then measure it yourself on a set from bulk.

Who actually makes it

The last question in the RFQ asks whether weaving, printing or stitching happens outside the unit you're talking to. It isn't a trick question. Home textiles can be made by a weaver, a printer and a stitching unit working together, and that's a sensible way to run a cluster. A former merchandiser in Karur did warn that some makers win on price and then "compromise the quality for better quotation" (r/Karur, January 2026 (opens in a new tab)). Knowing who does each step is how you spot where a cheaper quote is coming from. Manufacturer or trading company explains why neither answer is wrong.

How It's Classified

Bed linen is heading 6302, which also holds table, toilet and kitchen linen. The split inside it is by three questions, in this order. Is it knitted (6302.10)? Is it printed (6302.21 for cotton, 6302.22 for man-made fibres)? If not printed, what's the fibre (6302.31 for cotton, 6302.32 for man-made)? So a jersey sheet, a printed percale cover and a plain sateen sheet are three different lines before anyone asks about trims.

Then the national digits add their own questions. The US asks whether it's napped and whether it has trims, as above. The UK charges 12% on cotton bed linen from a country with no preference and 0% on Indian bed linen under the UK-India agreement, with India excluded from the UK's developing-country scheme on this line (UK tariff, 6302310000 (opens in a new tab), read 5 Oct 2026). New Zealand charges 5% on printed cotton bed linen under its normal tariff (NZ Working Tariff (opens in a new tab)). And in the EU, Indian home textiles lost their GSP preference from 1 January 2026 to the end of 2028, while Indian clothing kept it (Regulation (EU) 2025/1909 (opens in a new tab)). That last one matters if you're comparing Indian bed linen with a country that still has a preference.

The method for finding your own 10-digit line is on finding your HS code. Check the line with your customs broker before you price.

What Gets Tested

Bed linen is a quiet category in the official records. In our pull of EU, UK and US safety records on India-origin goods from 2021 to September 2026, no adult sheet or duvet cover was named. So the test plan is mostly about what your customers will notice and what your market restricts in dyes.

For the EU and the UK, test the bulk fabric for azo dyes that release banned amines (30 mg/kg is the limit in textiles that touch the skin). For every market, colourfastness to washing and rubbing, and dimensional stability after washing, are the tests that decide your returns. If you sell nursery bedding, add a check for loose threads and small parts. A woven baby blanket made in India was recalled in the US in 2022 because its threads "can come loose and detach" (CPSC (opens in a new tab)). Blankets are a different heading, but the nursery buyer's risk is the same.

If organic or GOTS is part of your listing, textile certifications explains which certificate belongs to your shipment. When the first sample arrives, the sample evaluation checklist helps you judge it against the RFQ.

Where It's Made

In India, the government lists Panipat for bed linen among its export towns, and Karur is known for handloom home textiles. Block-printed bedding comes from the craft printers around Jaipur, which is where our opening story starts. But as the shipping records show, a lot of Indian bed linen is made by large integrated mills outside those towns. Which town fits your product, and what each border charges on Indian bed linen, is on bed linen from India. The wider family is on textiles.

Back To The Sheer Cotton

The Jaipur printer did nothing wrong. Light cloth takes colour well, and for a dress you can always add a lining. A bed can't be lined. Write the base cloth into your RFQ, and the same printer can give you a cover that's as good to sleep under as it is to look at.