washing cambodian silk?
Answers:
Is the silk textured, printed, or hot-pressed? Although silk fabric itself is usually washable, many dyes and surface treatments are not. Also, sometimes if a manufacturer expects that the garments will be dry-cleaned, the fabric is not washed before the garments are cut - this can cause shrinking and puckering at the seams when a garment is washed.
My suggestion, would be to carefully measure one of the scarves, and then try your preferred laundering technique on it, and then measure again once dry. If it's changed, you know that they didn't wash the silk after it was woven, as long as the silk fabric in the garments looks to be exactly the same stuff as the scarf is made from. The nice thing about having a scarf to test, is that it still fits if it shrinks a little, and there aren't hems or seams to pucker.
I usually prefer hair shampoo for silk; Woolite has some chemicals in it that may not be quite as kind to silk as to wool. I wash and rinse silk in cool water, supporting the silk with my hands any time I need to lift it, and then use Milsoft as a rinse, or fabric softener, to reduce static and improve the hand. Some silks can be tumbled dry, but I'd try hang-drying first. Depending on the texture, you may get a better finish by ironing the garments while they are slightly damp, and allowing the iron heat to dry them; this is usually good with smooth shiny thin silk. If you have a more heavily-textured type silk, which is often the case with the Southeast Asian silks, you may want to wait until it is dry, and iron on the reverse side, to avoid flattening the texture and creating iron shine.
Other answers:
Sounds good. Use cool water, not even warm. While ironing use a damp cloth.
Be sure the dye used is water resistant enough. You may want to do each one separately.
Sounds good. Use cool water, not even warm. While ironing use a damp cloth.
Be sure the dye used is water resistant enough. You may want to do each one separately.