While I wait for my bolts of silk to arrive, I have decided to write about sewing with silk. This info once I finish compiling it will become my next Squidoo lens: Sewing with Silk.
Characteristics of Silk:
The Advantages:
Silk is the most luxurious fiber.
Silk is very comfortable to wear: warm in the winter and cool in the summer. It is lightweight, resilient, and elastic. It resists wrinkling and holds it's shape well.
Silk has less static build up than other fibers. It absorbs moister well and dries quickly. It does not pill or soil easily, and is resistant to mildew.
Cultivated silk dyes and prints well.
Silk absorbs harmful UV rays, making it a natural sunblock protecting your skin from the sun.
The Drawbacks:
Silk is a highly temperamental fabric requiring great care. For the average person, silk requires more care and attention than they are going to want to invest in it.
Silk is very sensitive to chemicals and gasses. It can not be stored in plastic boxes or bags, as the gasses given off by the plastic will deteriorate the fiber.
Silk is easily damaged by perspiration and body oils and thus should not be worn against the skin. Cotton undergarments are recommended to be worn under silk to draw body oils away from the silk.
Silk is sensitive to climate changes, excessive heat especially, will cause yellowing of light colored silks.
Silk fabric often shrinks.
Silk is easily damaged by most cleaning chemicals and should be carefully dry cleaned, or hand washed with mild soap: strong soaps, most detergents, and all acids and alkalies, and chlorine bleach will all cause serious and irreversible damage to silk and should never be used to clean it.
Silk is susceptible to moths and insects, and should be stored in a cedar chest to prevent damage.
Silk, once molded, is very difficult to repair.
Silk must be stored in wood: either folded in a chest or hung in a freestanding armoire. It should never be stored hanging with other cloths in your closet or folded up in your dresser drawers. Silk must be stored in it own special chest or cabinet, only with other silk items.
Silk is very sensitive to sunlight, and should never be stored near a window.
Silk must be taken out of storage, unfolded, and hung out to air at least once every 2 or 3 months, if not more often. Silk requires air circulation to keep it from deteriorating with age.
Ironing and pressing silk should be done with extreme care. Use a cold iron or only the lowest settings when pressing silk, and only press it if absolutely necessary.
Silk changes color with age. Your white silk today, will be ivory a few years from now, and yellow a few years after that. This is natural and is not considered a defect, but it will affect what you make out of silk. For example you would not want to use it to make a white wedding gown, if you planned on passing this gown down to your daughters and granddaughters, as it would have long since lost it's white color before they were old enough to wear it.
Some types of silk are very slippery, making them difficult to cut, sew, or even wear.
Most silks slip and pull badly at seamlines. Most silk garments will require you to carefully rip out seams and completely restitch the garment once every year or so, in order to keep the garment functional. Traditionally silk garments are taken apart each time they require cleaning and each part cleaned separately, than the garment is resewn after each cleaning.
The Variances:
Silk can be used to make cloth of all weights, from thin and very sheer to soft, supple, and drapeable, to stiff and bouffant, to very think and heavy.
Silks can be woven to an infinite variety of textures, from shinny, slippery, and high luster, to soft fuzzy naps, to intricate woven patterns, to heavy nubby weaves.
Silk Sewing Checklist:
Machine Needles:
Universal H-point
Red Band
sizes 60/8 to 90/14, depending on fabric weight
60/8 or 70/10 for lightweight silks
Machine Setting:
stitch length: 12-15 per inch (1.75 - 2 mm)
tension: loosely balanced
Sewing Machine Equipment:
straight stitch
roller foot
Hand Sewing Needles:
sizes 5 to 10
Thread:
Topstitching Thread:
silk (size A or D)
Basting Thread:
basting cotton
silk (size A)
Marking Techniques:
all types except wax
clips or tailor tacks recommended
tailor's chalk
dressmakers chalk pencils
soap sliver
temporary marking pens
wheel and tracing carbon (wax-free only)
never use wax on silk
Seams:
French seams
false French seams
standing fell
flat fell
double-ply
welt
top stitched
tissue stitched
Hong Kong seam
Hems:
shirttail
book
hand rolled (recommended)
machine rolled
hemmer rolled
shell
lettuce edge
topstitch
merrow
mock merrow
plain
handkerchief hem
Seam and Hem Finishes:
single-ply (turned and stitched)
folded
hand overcast
zig zag
multi zig zag
serged
double-ply
pinked and stitched
Hong Kong finished
Edge Finishes:
self fabric facings
bias bindings (recommended)
bands
casings
ribbing
Interfacings:
always pre-shrink
self fabric
muslin
silk organza
marquisette
cotton organdy
batiste
tulle
prima cotton
knit fusibles
light weight woven fusibles
light weight non-woven fusibles
sew in interfacing
Linings:
always pre-shrink
lightweight cotton
lightweight silk
only used on kimonos, jackets, coats, and pants, or when opaqueness is needed under sheers
Underlinings:
lightweight cotton
lightweight silk
rayon
crepe de chine
Chasmeuse
China silk
silk broadcloth
jacquard
bemberg
only used on kimonos, jackets, coats, and pants, or when opaqueness is needed under sheers
avoid using synthetic fabrics
Pockets:
silk garments generally do not have pockets
patch pockets
welted pockets
side seam pockets
Closures:
use lightweight zippers and buttons that are not heavy, otherwise fabric will sag under the weight
good quality buttons look better than cheap plastic buttons against very expensive silk
use embroidery thread for button holes
button loops usually need to be corded
avoid stiff or heavy closures and trims
Special Equipment:
sewing with silk doesn't generally require any special equipment, though you should take you time and sew each step very slowly, constantly checking to be certain that the two pieces of fabric are not slipping
What's your take on this? I'd love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!
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If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:
All about Lord Sesshomaru's garb & Making a Lord Sesshomaru Costume. Plus, Sesshomaru & Rin and making Rin's Costume; and this is for anyone who needs help Creating Character Profiles for their stories or for their SCA persona.
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