Our Blog

Welcome to the MyCottonNightie blog; here you will find various bits of information about cotton nighties and our company.

if there is something you think we should add, just ask and we will try to add something for that topic.

We frequently have guest authors so if you are very knowledgable and would like to write something that links back to your guiding website or similar get in touch with Christine here.

Tanzania Organic Cotton
The Many Uses Of Cotton
A Cotton Gin (Cotton Engine)
Cultivation For The Nation
Why Cotton Nighties are great as Maternity night-wear
A year of selling Cotton Nighties!
Cotton Nighties on BBC Television
Cotton Nighties in the News
Cotton Nighties Lengths
History of nightwear
Victorian Fashion book review
Cotton nighties; a few more details
Benefits of Cotton Nighties
Cotton Nighties - Size guide
Terms & Conditions + Returns Policy
My Cotton Nightie Payment System

Tanzania Organic Cotton
Amandeep Kallah

Cotton is Tanzanians second major export crop after coffee. Cotton maintains 48% of Tanzanian population for their source and livelihood which has led to a growing interest by farmers, governments, private stakeholders in organic cotton supply as it acts as means to poverty. Organic producing areas are characterized by poor infrastructure, lack of awareness of cotton products by consumers and poor market intelligence by traders. Over 70% of Tanzanian cotton is exported and only 30% is used locally.
 
Cotton is very important to Tanzania economy and was introduced around 1904 by German settlers as a plantation crop. Production of cotton started at Ukiriguru, South Lake Victoria. Organic cotton production began in 1994, and Tanzania is currently the largest producer of organic cotton fibre in Sub-Saharan, Africa ahead of Uganda.
 
Organic cotton farmers generally receive 20% higher prices than their conventional counterparts. The organic cotton buyers, government and policy …
 

The Many Uses Of Cotton
Courtney Stavrou

 
 
Cotton can be used to make a number of useful things such as denim for blue jeans, terrycloth for bathroom towels which are highly absorbent materials and much more.   While some materials are thrown away after weaving, spinning and cutting cotton. They can be recovered, recycled and blended with other fabrics such as Rayon and other synthetic fabrics such as polyester. It is also mixed with elastine which is primarily used for jeans and knickers so that it stretches to fit the user.
 
The major uses for cotton fibre include apparel, home furnishings, and other industrial uses such as medical supplies. At the beginning of the 20 th century to the end of World War 2; 81% of the worlds total fibre consumption was cotton fibre.
 
Besides traditional uses and as a result of various finishing processes that have been applied to the cotton fibre, cotton is made into special materials suitable for a number of uses. It has been identified that an existing flame reta…
 

A Cotton Gin (Cotton Engine)
Courtney Stavrou

  A cotton gin (cotton engine ) is a machine that quickly and easily separates the cotton fibres from the seeds. This is a job formerly performed by hand during 1794. The fibres are processed into cotton goods, and the seeds may be used to grow more cotton, to produce cottonseed oil, or, if they are badly damaged, are disposed of. The gin uses a combination of a wire screen and small wire hooks to pull the cotton through, while brushes continuously remove the loose cotton lint to prevent jams.
 
The earlier versions on cotton gins consisted of a either wood or iron roller and a flat piece of wood or stone; Evidence for this type of gin has been found in Africa, Asia, and North America. The first documentation of the use of cotton gins by contemporary scholars is found in the fifth century AD.   There is also visual evidence by Leslie Riddlehover fifth-century Buddhist paintings in the Ajanta Caves in western India. These early gins were extremely hard to use and required …
 

Cultivation For The Nation
Courtney Stavrou

The cotton plant can be found as a perennial in treelike plants in tropical climates but is normally cultivated as a shrubby annual in temperate climates. For the successful cultivation of cotton there needs to be a long frost-free period, plenty of sunshine and at least 24 to 48 inches of rainfall (600 to 1200mm). The best places for cotton to grow are either in the northern or the southern hemisphere. Were the soils are dense and the levels of the nutrients in the soil are need not be that exceptional. The planting of cotton varies from the beginning of February to the beginning of June.
 
Most of the cotton in United States, Europe, and Australia is harvested mechanically in two ways. The first way is by a cotton picker which is a machine that extracts the cotton from the boll without damaging the plant itself; the second is by a cotton stripper which strips the entire boll from the plant.  Cotton strippers are used in regions where it is too windy to grow picker varieties …
 

Why Cotton Nighties are great as Maternity night-wear
Jane Andrews

There are many reasons why cotton nighties are great as maternity wear - but in our opinion these are the top three:
 
Loose fit! - yes one of the important features of Cotton nighties is that they are not tight or restricting helping you feel comfortable and leaving you with space to grow. 
 
Cotton is actually very absorbant and can up to 1/5th of its weight in water before it starts to feel moist; enabling it to draw moisture away from your body and help it evaporate through its very high surface area. 
 
Cotton is hypoallergenic! Meaning that it is not going to be making you even more uncomfortable than you already are. 
 
Follow  this link to see our Maternity Suitable Nighties.
 
What makes our Maternity Suitable nighties suitable compared with our other cotton nighties? The big thing here is based around the ability to undo the nightie from the front - instead of having to pull it over your head - if you get very large this is particularly useful! 
 
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A year of selling Cotton Nighties!
Jane Andrews

It is exactly a year since we set-up MyCottonNightie.com.
 
Happy Birthday MCN.com
 
1 Year Today! 
 
It has been quite a trip and learning all the 'ins and outs' of working with on-line marketing and sales. Figuring out how websites work, the processes and technical parts can get pretty confusing - and of course working out how to work through Google advertising and realising how much of your budget it can quickly eat was amongst the early shocks!
 
We can now happily say we have got things under control and the business is going well with hundreds of very happy customers!
 
All in all we would like to say a big thank you to our customers for their orders, kind messages about our products and also their recommendations to friends and family. 
 
 x Katie & Jane 
 
 
 
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Cotton Nighties on BBC Television
Katie Billings

MyCottonNightie's nighties were shown as a prop on Casulty on BBC1. They were featued throughout the episode and dispite being covered in dirt as part of the set - didn't look too bad!
 
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Cotton Nighties in the News
Katie Billings

I was browsing the web the other day - and came across this superb article in the telegraph - really quite marvellous!
 
Follow this link for the full article.
 
 She really does describe the beauty of wearing these products! Talking of how nice it is to have high quality cotton next to your skin at night (rather than sweat retaining polyester) and how these cotton nighties are brilliantly durable - standing the test of time as a garment and when it comes to washing.
 
 Thankfully you don't have to have the 'neck to toe' as once described as our range of short cotton nighties and strap tops really bring this classic nightwear up to date. Have a look here for our shorter nightwear.
 
< Our brilliant Godiva Cotton Nighties
 
 
 
 
 
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Cotton Nighties Lengths
Jane Andrews

For all our LONG Nighties, the Length measurements are all as follows:
 
S/M = 115cm (45 & 1/4 inch) M/L = 116cm (45 & 3/4 inch) L/XL = 117cm (46 inch) XL/XXL = 118cm (46 &b 1/2 inch)
 
For the SHORT Nighties, the Length measurements are all as follows:
 
S/M = 80cm (31 & 1/2 inch) M/L = 81cm (31 & 3/4 inch) L/XL = 82cm (32 1/4 inch) XL/XXL = N/A
 
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History of nightwear
Jane Andrews

It's quite hard to imagine a time when nightwear did not exist - but the interesting fact specific nightwear is actually a recent innovation. Here is quick run-down of the different types of nightwear throughout the ages;
 
Chemises
 
Chemises were a unisex garment in terms of wearers, and people used them as a sort of early underwear as they became more popular around the Middle Ages. It protected bed clothing from sweat, body oils and dead skin. Over time the chemise became the only piece of clothing to be washed regularly and it was only worn in the bed.
 
Negligees
 
Negligees originate from 17 th Century France and, at the time the new garment was highly functional and was generally quite long and made from a reasonably heavy fabric. Over the next three hundred years the negligee changed to match styles of dress and by the early 20 th Century they were shorter lighter and were significantly racier than the original negligees.
 
Picture shows: Cot…