In this guide I want to show you how to wash items made from 100% silk fabric and how to prewash silk fabric for sewing projects.
Manufacturers of silk garments and bedding usually don’t bother to prewash fabric they work with. That’s why they put labels saying “Dry Clean Only”.
But I highly advise to prewash the entire piece of silk fabric before cutting it. Of course, there are some exceptions to this rule. Don’t prewash home décor silk (which is usually heavier and wider) if you are going to use it for sewing curtains and throw pillows, and embroidered silk fabric which may not shrink proportionally.
I am against dry cleaning whenever possible because of chemicals even if it is organic. In China, they make silk fabric for at least 5000 years. And people cared for traditional silk garments long before dry cleaning. Silk is tough fabric, it only appears to be delicate! It certainly can be washed in water.
Below you can see a painting of Robert Frederick Blum (American artist, 1857–1903) “In the Laundry”. It looks like they are washing silk garments.
Prewashing is necessary because silk fabric has one feature – most likely it will shrink after washing (in 90% of cases). So if you don’t prewash you may end up with the garment not fitting or draping the same after it has been cleaned. The fabric may even shrink when you iron it during construction and sewing. With prewashing, you also can avoid huge dry cleaning bills if you going to launder silk garments yourself.
✅ Related tutorial: How to sew silk
But not all silk fabrics and garments are equal. Prewashing (especially if it is not done properly) can take out the crispness of some decorator silk fabric, prints or colors can run (very rarely though for modern fabrics), silk fabric can lose some of the sheen and may turn muddy (especially if you put it in a washing machine). So, in the end, it is your choice if you want to pre-treat silk fabric before cutting. As for me, I always do that and never had any problems.
Here are some rules for prewashing silk fabric
1. Fill a container with lukewarm water (30-35 °C, 86-95 °F ). You can add to the water a few tablespoons of a distilled white vinegar or a few drops of a liquid hair conditioner. Don’t use your washing machine, most silk fabrics have to be hand washed. Of course, there are exceptions.
2. Gently push your fabric into the water and move it around a little so all the fabric is soaked.
3. Let it sit for 5 minutes or so.
4. Drain water, gently squeeze the fabric, put it on a towel and roll it up to remove water.
5. Air dry it, but not fully, it has to be a little damp before you iron it. Don’t place it to dry in direct sunlight or near heating elements. Machine drying is not recommended.
✅ Related tutorial: How to make a robe without a pattern from pure silk fabric
How to iron silk
Ironing silk is always delicate work. Iron (while it is still damp) without steam on the wrong side of the fabric. Test your iron first on a small side piece of fabric. Don’t slide the iron over the silk, or it may stretch the fabric or put it off-grain.
Usually, irons have special settings for silk but I found that the temperature of this setting is really very low. So I iron my silk fabric on the wool setting ( and some even on cotton) and never burned even sheer chiffon. The silk fabric is not afraid of a hot iron.
Satin and other shiny fabrics can be ironed on the right side, but it’s better to iron silk on the wrong side.
✅ Related tutorial: Best iron for sewing – all you need to know for choosing an iron for sewing and quilting
A long time ago I discovered that silk organza makes perfect press cloth. I made a shrug from organza to go with my wedding dress, but it was quite a lot of fabric left and I notice that it can be ironed on high temperature and with a steam without any problem. From the beginning, I even thought that I was misled and my organza is not real silk.
But I made burn out tests and results were positive, I had organza from pure silk for sure. So I started to use this fabric as a press cloth and was never disappointed. The main thing is that I can clearly see through the fabric where I am ironing and I can easily avoid that awful creases that form sometimes and can spoil the whole garment.
Moreover, with organza as the press cloth, I am able to avoid those terrible watermarks that a steam iron sometimes produces out of nowhere.
So I highly recommend buying quite cheap organza silk fabric (well, really, it is not costly silk fabric somehow) and use it as a press cloth.
I have never seen 100% silk organza at a fabric store. I always buy silk fabric online. Here is an affiliate link where you can buy silk organza.
And now one more trick you can use. Sometimes you don’t even need to iron silk fabric or garments made from it especially if the silk cloth is lightweight. Just hang it in the bathroom while you take a shower, and high humidity will take the wrinkles out of your silk right away. I live in Florida and I even can put my silk cloth outside ( not in direct sunlight ) when it is humid, and it is humid practically all the time here.
Anyway, it is best to always pre-treat your silk fabric using the manner in which you intend to care for the garment. This pre-treatment before cutting and sewing with ensure longer life of your garment.
How to wash silk garments and bedding
For our great-grandmothers, a satin dress or a chiffon blouse was pretty common (polyester was not created yet). They knew how to properly take care of them, cherished them, and wore them for a long time.
Now their experience is almost lost. How many silk garments do you have? And even you have some silk dress or a blouse you don’t wash it, right? You go to a dry cleaner.
But if you can sew you can make as many silk dresses as you want and then you will need to know how to wash them.
Natural silk is not only delicate, but also expensive, so I’ll try to give some recommendations on how not to spoil your favorite silk garment by incorrect washing.
1. Natural silk fabric is not afraid of hot iron but is very afraid of chlorine. Therefore, never use chlorine-containing detergents. Use detergents for washing delicate fabrics. But the best detergent for silk fabric is shampoo or natural handmade soap. Silk in the composition is very close to our hair, but even more subtle and tender. So if detergents would damage our hair, then they would destroy silk fabric equally.
2. Try not to wash delicate garments made out of lightweight silk (like chiffon, georgette, crepe de Chine, charmeuse) in a washing machine (even if there is a delicate or manual washing mode). Handwashing is much better for these types of silk. The fibers of silk fabric in the wet state lose their strength and are destroyed by mechanical action. It is possible that from one wash in the machine those garments will not fall apart but it may happen after a few washings.
✅ Related tutorial: Types of silk fabric
3. Handwashing of lightweight silk garments can be done… in a salad spinner. No, I am not going crazy. And of course, I am not going to use the salad spinner to make food after that. But it is really great for washing silk scarves, shrugs, and blouses. Here is a small video on how I am doing this. Also, I soak the garment in warm water with some shampoo in it for about half an hour.
4. Wash and rinse the garment in warm water (30-35 °C, 86-95 °F ). When doing the last rinse add to the water a few drops of a liquid hair conditioner or white vinegar.
5. After washing, don’t squeeze or twist the garment. Let the water drain and put the garment on a towel and roll it up to remove water. Never put anything made of silk in a dryer. Let it air-dry.
6. Don’t let silk dry completely. Leave it a little damp for ironing. It can be ironed out perfectly only damp. If it’s damp you can smooth all wrinkles and creases that appeared during washing.
Did you find this tutorial helpful? If so, save this pin (see below) on your sewing board so you can come to this tutorial later when you are ready to wash or prewash silk and follow me on Pinterest for more tips, tutorials, and inspiration!
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Thank you!
Thank you! I am happy to be helpful with my tutorials.
Bookmarked this for reference. Thanks for the videos as well!
Thanks for stopping by! I am glad my article was useful.
I’m curious: have you ever worked with silk jersey? I’ve seen it recently, and I love Jersey, and I love the sound of silk jersey, but I’m a bit scared of it.
Yes, I made some projects from silk jersey – a few tops, a skirt and PJ pants. I love to wear them. It’s so easy and fast to sew with a serger. I didn’t have problems working with silk jersey. The fabric is not very different from regular knits. It’s quite thin, very stretchy, and doesn’t have any sheen. It doesn’t look like silk at all actually. Mine doesn’t have any sound (woven silk shantung, dupioni, satin, taffeta have the sound). I bought it online at printedsilkfabric.com. But even if it doesn’t look like silk, it feels like silk – so soft and cool like I am dressed in a cloud. So check online how to sew knits – and you will be good to go.
I bought some tessa silk. I have recently been told to wet the silk fabric, roll it in a towel, and then place it in a refrigerator for approx. 24 hours. Then steam press to dry.
Have you ever done this?
Hi, Kris! I actually heard about this method in connection with wool fabric – to make colors not run and to kill moths. There are so many different types of silk now! I didn’t even hear about “tessa” silk. Tried to look online now and didn’t find anything suitable. Can you tell me (and my readers) what it is?
Ah I see wikipedia entry for “Tussar silk” plus a bunch of alternative spellings.
Oh, I see, there are alternative spellings… Of course, I heard about Tussar silk, but I am not sure I can see (and feel) the difference between Tussar silk and Mulberry silk. I guess we have to be told what kind of silk we buy. Manufacturers know better what kind of silk they produce.
Thank you for your blog. I enjoy it very much. For years, I have washed and dried the light weight silk. It comes out beautiful. I sew the fabrics selvage edges together and if to ravely, I serge those edges. The heavier Thai silk I have not tried to wash it
Thank you for your feedback! I also didn’t try to wash heavy silk, I didn’t actually use it very often.
Thank you for this helpful information!
Thank you for your feedback!
Hello, Olga! I just found your website, and I can’t stop reading! Lots of helpful info, and I like your life philosophy. Thank you for sharing! A question: do you have suggestions for caring for wool garments at home, like wool crepe for example? Is there a way to wash it at home or is dry cleaning the best option? Thank you in advance!
Thank you for your kind words! I am always glad when someone finds something useful in what I write.
Washing wool is not something I would recommend. Wool shrinks a lot, so having it prewashed is a must if you ever plan to get it completely wet, let alone wash it. Also wool garments usually have lining, and washing (and pressing) a garment with lining is not something I want to think about! But yes, it is possible, albeit difficult. If the garment has no lining, the cloth is not very thick, if it has been prewashed, if you use only cold water, if you wash by hand or on the delicate cycle, if you dry the garment on a flat surface (never tumble dry), then I would say washing is possible on the 30th of February if the moon is full. Why? Because I tried myself with a skirt of my own making, so I knew very well the history and the material, and I had major issues after that – basically the skirt was ruined, I could never press it properly. To summarize, I am sorry but no, I don’t think it is practical to wash wool, better dry clean it.
Olga thank you for this article….I use silk in garments and teach sewing and it is so hard to convince people that silk is more robust than they think! My favorite press cloth is double silk organza. I was lucky enough to work for G Street fabrics when they had everything under the sun and at a good price…
I do historical costuming and caring for the pieces gives me joy, not burdensome feelings. So too my art garments, the first of which I still have from 2002! Good care is so important, and I will use your article, if I may, for my students. You cover everything!
Kim, as you, I am happy to share my knowledge and experience, of course you can use my articles and share them with your students. Perhaps they can find other interesting items too on my site. I would be happy to hear more about your experience if you could contact me at [email protected]. Thank you!
Salad spinner! What a fantastic idea! Thank you 😉
Hi! I just came across this website and it was so helpful! I am trying to dye a silk dress I have. I have read everything I can on the Dharma website and purchased the necessary products to do so.
My only issue is that it says I have to dye it in hot water on the stove. It is a silk charmeuse dress and it was pretty expensive. Do you have any tips or ideas on how do to this? Thank you so much!
I have never myself dyed anything; and whatever I have seen done, the color was never uniform enough for me, therefore my reluctance to do it. I personally would not venture to do it. More possible issues: charmeuse might shrink some in very hot hot water, even if preshrunk. Also after the procedure, it will be all wrinkled and ironing this is never a pleasure, charmeuse from my experience is difficult to iron. Not impossible of course. But all this being said, if you decide to do it, I suggest at least try to find a piece of material like that to try the process first. Depending on the material, temperature, timing, original color, etc. you might end up with a different color than you expect, I suggest if possible, try to do a test run before.
And if you do it and are successful, if you want to share the experience for the benefit of others, let me know please!