Real silk brocade!! Now what?

No. Contact Dharma Trading and ask: they might know! And then tell us

- curiosity is a virtue in the quilt group! ;)

I like Kate's suggestion of asking Dharma Trading. I was also thinking that perhaps he meant you will need to either preshrink the silk OR use something to set the color. HMMM -- interesting -- please let us know what you find out, OK??

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

I don't know, however my favorite silk "store",

Beverly

Possibly pre-washing?

Certain silks can be hand-washed or even by machine on the gentle cycle, thus pre-washing the fabric before running up your project would remove sizing, allow for shrinkage, and remove excess dyes; however IIRC silk brocade normally is dry clean only.

Candide

I recall that my mother always used common cooking salt in water to set dye in fabric likely to bleed colour. I use a lot of silk fabric and always wash it before sewing to preshrink it but have never bothered about the salt. I just wash it and if colour comes out, I keep rinsing till the rinse water is clear. I wash all fabric before sewing even those that say dry clean only.

Thanks to all ... I"ll let you know what I find out!

Marianne

I haven't heard back from Thai Silks or Dharma Trading. But...

I ran into Brenda Clough, who is a fine science fiction and fantasy writer and knows her fabrics and is Chinese American. And she suggested that I either just leave it to my dressmaker (this stuff is so nice that I'm not sure I trust my own sewing skills) or cut out a piece and try washing it myself. As it happened, one of the pieces, a green and blue with fuschia medallions, didn't change much at all, but the other, a red and gold with a floral weave, is clearly heavily treated with some kind of size, and will need careful handling.

Again, thanks for all your help and suggestions.