Sewing room essentials
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Full articleProduct code 101-05-9031
A feather-light, slightly matte fabric made of a blend of silk and cotton, this silk cotton voile in burgundy is wonderful as a lightweight lining but also makes lovely summer tops and dresses, billowing scarves and wraps, and beautiful curtains too.
Read moreShade: | burgundy |
Material: | 50% cotton, 50% silk |
Width (cm): | 137 cm |
Width (inches): | 54 ″ |
Weight (mm): | 12 mm |
Weight (gsm): | 52 gsm |
Weight (oz): | 1.5 oz |
Drape: | supple |
Care: | |
Availability: | seasonal collection |
Minimum order: | 0.2 m |
in stock 37.8 m
Voile is a very fine, airy fabric, usually woven from cotton. Ours, however, are made of a mix of cotton and silk. The silk makes them lighter and finer and gives them a subtle sheen, while the cotton adds softness and helps then hold their shape. Like habotai, voile makes a very good lining for light garments (dresses, blouses, jackets) but is also a wonderful stand-alone material for tops, tunics, skirts, and dresses. Lighter shades have a tendency to be sheer, making the use of the lining or underlayer recommendable.
Voile floats beautifully and is a good match for loose cut styles, billowing scarves and wraps, or for curtains and drapes.
We recommend dry cleaning this fabric at a reliable dry cleaner. In our silk washing tests this fabric stood up to gentle hand washing but shrank slightly due to the cotton content. If you risk hand washing, use lukewarm water and a delicate detergent for woolens; do not wring or squeeze dry; block dry on a flat surface. Iron on the lowest setting. Avoid water droplets.
Yes. Silk is our specialty. All fabrics marked as "silk" in our shop are always made of natural silk. You can rely on the fact that is always natural mulberry silk unless we say otherwise. If it is a different type of natural silk (e.g., wild silk), we will say so. We describe the many types of natural silk in full detail in our post on types of silk.
Washing is generally not recommended for silk – it belongs at the dry cleaners. However, as our big silk wash test has shown, some types of silk fabrics can stand up to a gentle wash program or hand washing without harm if you follow the procedure described. That said, wash silk at your own risk. We definitely recommend testing in advance on a small sample of the fabric – because silk is a natural material it's not 100% predictable. Never use an ordinary laundry detergent – use a special detergent for wool and silk or, if there's no other option, a gentle, silicone-free shampoo.
The fabrics in our core inventory, seasonal collections and limited editions are from repeated production cycles that we have quality-tested – given proper care their colors should not bleed. Fabrics that are on offer while supplies last are one-off products that have not been individually tested, so we recommend testing on a sample. Silk may lose some color when washed in water that's too hot or with unsuitable detergent. Always follow the recommended water temperature and use detergents designed for washing silk or wool. Washing silk, though it is often no problem, is always at your own risk. Read more in our post on How to wash silk.
If you are not going to dye the finished garment, we recommend a high-quality polyester thread for sewing silk. If you want to dye the finished garment, be sure to choose a silk thread (polyester does not take dye). The choice of sewing needle and thread depends on the type and weight of the fabric – for sewing particularly fine fabrics (chiffons, georgettees, light satins, light crepes) a thinner polyester or silk thread and a corresponding thin needle are suitable. Do not use cotton thread to sew silk.
Probably the best way to tell is the burn test. Silk burns reluctantly, leaving a black crumb that you can easily crush between your fingers and smells like burnt hair. Be sure to test threads pulled from both the weft and the warp. In addition to the burn test, there are a plenty of other tricks – check out our post on how to tell real silk.
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