What really is Thai silk?
The Chinese kept the secret of silk for thousands of years! It truly is an exclusive fabric and in the past it was only for high society and kings. The secret was protected through the application of terrible penalties. Anyone found guilty of smuggling silkworm eggs, cocoons, or even mulberry seeds was sentenced to death.
A secret does not stay secret forever. Thai silk production begins with a small worm known as Bombyx mori: the silkworms that hatch from silk moth eggs.
The worms eat the leaves of mulberry trees until they are 1 year old, after which they build a cocoon with their saliva.
To extract the silk thread, we have to put the cocoon in hot boiled water. The length of the silk thread in a cocoon varies considerably, from 500 to 1,500 meters. The length depends very much on the species of worm that produced it.
“To this day in Thailand, most silk thread is wound by hand by women, the filaments forming several cocoons that are wound together on a wooden spindle into a uniform strand of raw silk.
It is really a time consuming process. It can take up to 40 hours to obtain a real kilo and a half of silk. Several sericulture families have simplified the job by using a winder. However, most traditional manufacturers still use the old or “original” method, which produces three grades of silk: two fine ones suitable for lightweight fabrics, and a thicker one used for heavier materials.
The skeins of silk thread are then soaked in hot water to remove the rest of the serazin. Since Thai silk thread is yellow, it must be bleached before dyeing; this is done by immersing the skeins in large vats containing hydrogen peroxide, after which they are washed and dried in the sun.
Thai Silk is then woven on a handloom, the threads (warps and wefts) passing through and inserted during the weaving process. Thai Silk is a handwoven fabric, which means that while it meets established standards for width, color and quality, it retains a degree of individuality impossible to achieve with more advanced technology.
Cleaning and care of Thai silk
Thai Silk has an excellent durable and resistant quality. It is a delicate fabric that cannot be treated like linen or cotton. To keep the fabric in its original appearance, dry cleaning is recommended. Best wash Thai silk by hand with a very mild soap. Rinse silk fabric in lukewarm water (no hotter than 120 degrees Fahrenheit) until clean. Then carefully press the water out of the fabric with your hand. do not drain In the last rinse, add a tablespoon of clear white vinegar so that it retains its original shine and let it dry in the shade.
Important:
Please do not use any dryer or washing machine to clean your Thai silk item. We recommend ironing the fabric from the reverse just before it dries; Or you can also place a cloth on top of the silk during the ironing process to ensure that the iron does not come into direct contact with the silk cloth.
Real Thai Silk Identification
Just follow the four main methods to determine true silk:
-A) The Price
-B) Look and feel
-C) Brightness control
-D) The burning test
A) Authentic Thai silk costs up to 10 times more than artificial silk.
B) A fact is that traditional Thai silk is woven by hand, which means that no fabric is the same and each one is unique. Artificial silk is woven by machine, so it is always the same color and every part of the fabric looks exactly the same.
C) Luster also shows whether a fabric is real or imitation. Pure Thai silk is made with one color for the warp and another for the weft. This produces the shimmer and shine and additionally creates the unique two shades and blends. The color change depends on the angle you hold it against the light.
D) If you burn silk with a flame, it leaves a fine ash and smells like burnt hair. Let’s remember that silk is made of natural fiber from the silkworm and similar to the fiber of hair or nails. Once the flame is removed it stops burning. Burning artificial silk is similar to burning plastic, the smell, the reaction to fire and the appearance.