How to Care for Silk Fabrics

Caring for silk is pretty straight-forward and won’t demand much of your time.

 

Wash the silk by hand and separately in cold water - ideal temperature is up to 30 °C - using the laundry detergent for delicate clothing. Always use a laundry detergent designed for silk and delicate clothing, do not use soap or shampoo. While washing, simply squeeze the fabric gently, do not rub it together and do not use force.

 

Once you washed it in cold water, rinse the silk one more time in water with a bit of a vinegar added (approximately one tablespoon for 5 - 10 litres of water), the vinegar helps to protect and maintain the colors of the fabric. Shake the vinegar out of the fabric, rinse it once more in cold water and let dry. If needed, you can flash dry the fabric in a dryer to avoid a static charge buildup, but it is necessary to then let the fabric dry completely in a natural way. It is ideal to let the fabric dry placed horizontally to avoid washing line “wrinkles”. Never wring out your silk! Silk dries almost instantly, but you can speed up the process by wrapping the silk in a towel and gently squeezing. Never let your silk dry out in the sun.

 

Initially, a strong electrostatic charge can build up on silk fabrics, especially when it comes to lighter items, but over time, as you continue to wear it, this tendency dwindles. Before ironing or wearing, it is therefore better to sprinkle all silk fabrics lightly with water, which removes the electrostatic charge. Hanging the fabric over a metal pole - a drying rack - or dry cleaning it also helps. If the silk fabric sticks to your ironing board while ironing, run over it carefully with a stainless table spoon, for example, or with any other rounded metal object.

 

It is prefered to iron silk fabric while still wet. Set your iron at one dot (up to 100 °C). You can use higher temperature when ironing thicker items. Test the temperature required to iron your particular silk item by carefully and gradually setting the temperature higher - always start at low setting! Iron on the reverse side.

 

Hang your slightly creased silk out in moist air, it will straighten itself out nicely.

 

ADVICE: After ironing, hang your scarf / shawl on a coat hanger, like trousers. It’ll have less folds than if you fold it up and put it on a shelf.

 

It is better to leave the cleaning of any stains to the cleaners, or consult the staff there on how/if to clean such stain by using chemical cleaning or by washing it by hand. 

 

Attention - never use bleach on silk fabrics, it would turn the silk into a sad and shapeless reminder of its former beauty.