[Sca-cooks] OT- question about cutting silk/slick synthetics.

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Stefan wrote:
>In a second message, giving permission to post her messages, she added:
>  > The fabric is slippery.  They call it china silk,
>  > but after doing some further investigating today I found out it is not silk
>  > at all but a synthetic.  It melts when burned and won't rip.  A friend
>  > mentioned that she was surprised they would use silk b/c it spots when
>  > rained on and the band does perform in the rain.  The same principles,
>  > however,  would apply in cutting any slippery fabric.

Aargh! This is just wrong! ALL the China silk i've found is actually 
SILK! Passing this message around will do a disservice to people who 
read it.

Instead, i would recommend that anyone purchasing fabric read the end 
of the cardboard bolt carefully in the fabric store. Some items i've 
seen advertised as "linen" at lower end fabric chain stores turn out 
to be linen blends or linen-look polyester.

So one should check for anything advertised as "silky" to make sure it's silk.

When in doubt, get a snippet - most stores will make tiny sample cuts 
about 1-/2 to 1 inch wide and a couple inches long - and go outside 
the store and give it a burn test.

But i will reiterate again what i have already said before - all the 
China silk i've found is really silk. The author is WRONG  to say 
that china silk is synthetic - perhaps what she found is, but such a 
blanket statement is false and misleading.

Anahita
Who has real silk China silk in a number of colors to use as garment 
lining, as well as some silk-like rayon lining fabric - which is 
man-made/artificial, but not synthetic - and therefore won't melt 
either, but burns like cotton or linen