washing cambodian silk?

Question

my husband brought me back a number of silk blouses, skirts, scarves and shirts. Is it OK to wash them with Woolite, hang them to dry and iron with warm iron? There are no laundering instructions on anything

Answer 1

Is the silk textured, printed, or hot-pressed? Although silk fabric itself is usually washable, many dyes and surface treatments are not. Also, sometimes if a manufacturer expects that the garments will be dry-cleaned, the fabric is not washed before the garments are cut - this can cause shrinking and puckering at the seams when a garment is washed.

My suggestion, would be to carefully measure one of the scarves, and then try your preferred laundering technique on it, and then measure again once dry. If it's changed, you know that they didn't wash the silk after it was woven, as long as the silk fabric in the garments looks to be exactly the same stuff as the scarf is made from. The nice thing about having a scarf to test, is that it still fits if it shrinks a little, and there aren't hems or seams to pucker.

I usually prefer hair shampoo for silk; Woolite has some chemicals in it that may not be quite as kind to silk as to wool. I wash and rinse silk in cool water, supporting the silk with my hands any time I need to lift it, and then use Milsoft as a rinse, or fabric softener, to reduce static and improve the hand. Some silks can be tumbled dry, but I'd try hang-drying first. Depending on the texture, you may get a better finish by ironing the garments while they are slightly damp, and allowing the iron heat to dry them; this is usually good with smooth shiny thin silk. If you have a more heavily-textured type silk, which is often the case with the Southeast Asian silks, you may want to wait until it is dry, and iron on the reverse side, to avoid flattening the texture and creating iron shine.

Answer 2

Cambodian Silk Fabric

Answer 3

Hand washing silk is a cautioned mode of cleansing silk. very virtually all silk may be hand washed (and does no longer decrease if the silk fabric have been pre-reduced in size till now stitching) in case you have puzzling water, you are going to be able to desire to wish to first upload a spoonful of borax to the bathing water Use lukewarm water and gentle, non-alkaline cleansing soap (which incorporate Ivory Liquid) or little one shampoo whilst rinsing, you are able to upload some tablespoonfuls of distilled white vinegar to the rinse water to neutralize alkali lines and to dissolve cleansing soap residue Or, upload some drops of hair conditioner to the appropriate rinse water for further silky experience Soaking silk for any various minutes might desire to be prevented do no longer use harsh detergents that incorporate bleaches or brighteners do no longer wring or twist; roll in towel to extract water

Answer 4

Sounds good. Use cool water, not even warm. While ironing use a damp cloth.

Be sure the dye used is water resistant enough. You may want to do each one separately.