A Tutorial on Silk

I  sew a lot of pony pouches, I sell a lot of pony pouches, and I take orders and make custom pony pouches.

Recently I was asked to put in a silk lining for some custom pouches. When I replied, "I don't think you really mean silk, I think you actually mean something else,"  I got some very strong push back. The woman argued quite vehemently, "All my haversacks are lined with silk." "I like silk linings." "Why won't you do a silk lining?" And so on.

Well, because those pony pouches she thought were silk lined, were not. Their lining was actually a silk substitute and a manmade fiber. It was made from one of an assortment of silk substitutes - Charmeuse. Satin. Polyester chiffon. Mercerized cotton. Ramie. Cupro. And so on. 

Charmeuse. (Used to make Prom dresses years ago for my girls!)

A satin crepe fabric from my stash. (Cambria's baby blessing dress was made from this.)

All are silky, shiny fabrics that are very smooth, usually shiny, and slip through your fingers nicely. And, they cost far less than the cost of silk, go on sale for great prices at fabric stores, and work quite nicely for protecting our models.

I, too, used to use "silk" as a describer of shiny, slippery fabrics. It wasn't until I began sewing 18th century clothing that I discovered what silk really was. Sewing historical clothing requires you to have a significant amount of knowledge about the fabrics that you are using, those that were also used during that time period. Silk is one of those fabrics. 

Most sewists do not sew historical clothing and do not need to have that information. As a result, "silk" has become a misnomer, a generic term, for what are really manmade fabrics. It is an innocent mistake and definitely not a deliberate deception on the part of anyone. 

So, the educator in me would like to share a little about silk, the real thing:

Due to its expense and limited availability, you will not find real silk used in manufacturing everyday clothing. Neither will you find silk available to buy in most fabric stores. (The fabric stores near me do not even sell silk blends let alone 100% silk fabrics.) 

The cost of silk is prohibitive. Currently my best source for 18th century fabrics sells it at $20 - $35 a yard. Ask me to use silk for my 18th century sewing, and I will hesitate.  I'll think long and hard about an 18th century item of clothing before agreeing to make it from silk. Silk is just far too expensive and I will not make any money (or I will even lose money on that item.).

For a pony pouch? Well, considering that I can get two Traditionals out of one yard of fabric, a silk lining at $20 - $35 a yard is far too expensive to use. (Remember, that's just for the lining. You still have the cost of the outer fabric plus your time spent in sewing the item.) Those manmade substitutes can be found on sale for $5 a yard and less - much more cost effective.

If you were to feel a piece of silk and compare it to how the manmade substitutes feel, you'd realize how different they are. Every real silk I have encountered has had a bit of roughness to it (called "slubbing"), a roughness I would not like next to my chinas.

Blue and white silk Lutestring from Burnley & Trowbridge. A close up shows that slubbing that gives it a rougher feel than manmade fabrics.

Because I do a lot of 18th century sewing, I've had to learn a lot about the fabrics themselves. Not just how to sew them, but about the content of the fabrics. Wools, cottons, linens, and yes, silks.  How they are woven. How they are printed or dyed. What the beginning source is for them. (Silkworms, the source for silk fibers, are raised on mulberry leaves and then killed by being boiled alive to make that pretty silk fabric. Another reason I don't like to use silk.) 

Single faced silk ribbon, again from Burnley & Trowbridge, that shows the slightly rough texture of real silk. 

Did it matter that my upset customer knew what I would be using? 

To me, it did. I knew I would not be using silk and it felt dishonest to let her believe that she was getting something that she was not. 

Like I said, no one is deliberately trying to deceive anyone. Using the term "silk" for shiny, slippery fabrics is akin to using "kleenex" rather than "tissue." Or, here in my part of Indiana, "coke" for any flavor of soft drink. As in, "Would you like a coke?" "Sure! what kind of cokes do you have?" (Really. I call the Dr. Pepper I am drinking right now as I type, a coke.)

So that's a short and sweet explanation about the difference between silk and manmade fabrics, fabrics that we refer to as silk when they actually are something quite different.

As for my disgruntled customer? She listened when I explained the difference between silk and a manmade fabric, my reasons for not using silk in a haversack, and she accepted the alternative to a silk lining that I offered her.