Silk: 14 Facts and Myths

1. Fact: Sericulture, or production of silk, has been practiced in Thailand for more than 3000 years.

2. Fact: One silkworm moth lays approximately 500 eggs over a 4-6 days period.
3. Fact: To produce the finest quality silk, the silkworm caterpillars are kept on excessive fresh mulberry leaves diet.
4. Myth: Silk is difficult to take care of. Not at all! Moreover, real silk resists dirt and stains! Dry or hand wash your silk scarf, cushion or bathrobe and don't leave it in the sun. That's it!
5. Fact: The caterpillars take about a month to get big enough to spin a cocoon. The cocoon spinning process takes 3-5 days.
6. Fact: The average Thai silk cocoon contains 400-900 meters of silk filament. However, a single filament is too thin for weaving. In Thailand, most silk thread is hand-reeled by women, 4-8 of the silk filaments are reeled together on a wooden spindle to obtain one strand of silk thread.
7. Fact:  It can take up to 12 hours to hand-reel only 0.25 kg of silk thread!
8. Myth: Silk shrinks after washing. Not entirely true. The silk thread itself does not shrink. However, washing silk fabric that is loosely woven will tighten up the weave, making the product look smaller.

9. Fact: It takes about 5500 silkworms or 8kg of cocoons to produce 1kg of raw silk!
10. Fact: 60% of silk fabric produced in Thailand in handwoven.
11. Myth: Silk is a very delicate fabric. On the contrary, silk has durable and resilient qualities! A single silk fiber has a tensile strength equal to steel wire of the same diameter! By knowing the right way to take care of the fabric, one can keep the silk garments in perfect original condition for many years.
12. Fact: The width of handwoven silk is limited to the size of the loom and it is usually smaller than that of machine made silk. The width of handwoven silk fabric typically reaches 1 meter or less. A good weaver can weave up to 4meters a day!
13. Fact: Unlike other silk rather than dying the woven fabric, Thai silk thread is dyed before the weaving. Very often different color thread is used for weft and warp creating rich color quality silk fabric.
14. Myth: Silk is unpleasant to wear. Silk is exothermic, releasing energy as heat when absorbing moisture. This means that silk clothing will keep you warm even when wet. Silk keeps your skin dry because silk fiber can absorb one third of its own weight in water without feeling damp. Silk is one of the safest fabrics you can have next to your skin. Where synthetics melt, silk burns to harmless ash. It is even more heat resistant than wool! Natural silk contains 12 different amino acids useful for any skin type and age, no wonder that silk is used for beauty products!