Sewing room essentials
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Full articleProduct code 101-33-0042
A stiff natural silk fabric, perfect for a formal look in ivory white, taffeta makes beautiful, rustling ball gowns and wedding dresses as well as pretty accessories.
Read moreShade: | ivory |
Material: | 100% silk |
Width (cm): | 134 cm |
Width (inches): | 53 ″ |
Weight (mm): | 16 mm |
Weight (gsm): | 70 gsm |
Weight (oz): | 2.1 oz |
Drape: | stiff |
Care: | |
Availability: | never out of stock |
Minimum order: | 0.2 m |
in stock 29.4 m
Silk taffeta is a luxury classic. Sturdy, tightly woven, with an elegant sheen, it falls in great, architectural folds and has a characteristic scroop (the rustling sound peculiar to taffeta). Perfect for wedding gowns and bridal fashions, ball gowns, and cocktail dresses, it also works wonders for accessories (clutches, wraps, flowers, bows) and home decor.
Taffeta is quite stiff, behaving much like tissue paper. It holds its shape and works wonderfully in full, gathered skirts and structured garments. Taffeta combines well with lace and chiffon; try a silk lining such as habotai or silk serge. For a similar look with a bit less stiffness, you might try a fine silk dupioni.
We recommend dry cleaning this fabric at a reliable dry cleaner. Hand washing will make this fabric lose its stiffness and shine and take on a crêpe-like structure. Dry 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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