In previous blog we’ve talked about cotton, linen fabric and their properties. In today’s blog we will continue to discuss about the other column: types of silk fabric with its classification and advantages.
There’re many different types of silk fabric which we will one by one discuss in the following blog. It has the properties such as sheen surface, soft and smooth, nice stretch, breathable and flat surface after wash. Silk fabric is good for summer clothing and elegant evening dress.
China is the earliest country to feed Bombyx mori (silkworm) at home and make the silk fabric. It has about 5000 years’ recorded history.
Silk fabric is a small but high ranking part in fabric industry. Normal fashion brands use less of this fabric but for some special top brands they use it a lot to show the elegant style of their clothing design.
Types of Silk Fabric
Silk fabric can be divided into 6 kinds.
1. Soft Plain Weave Silk Fabric
2. Silk Crepe Fabric
3. Silk Taffeta
4. Dupion Silk
5. Bud Silk
6. Spun Silk
1. Soft Plain Weave Silk Fabric
The quality of sot plain weave silk fabric is light weight and strong. It has a clean plain fabric front surface. Clothing, Chinese fan are its main usage. Some special kind of silk will use in industry and military.
The soft plain weave silk fabric can be divided into 2 categories according to the raw material.
1.1 Pure Silk
Habutai in one kind of pure silk. It translates from a Japanese word “habutae”( 羽二重 はぶたえ). It was introduced from Japan to Europe in late 19th century. It was the main fabric for kimono and formal dress.
Habutai has many different kinds. For expamle, 17.5g/m2 and 36-70g/m2. Normally the weft and warp silk fiber is in 2.2tex/2.4tex, single or multi combined. Solid dye or print are both workable on this fabric.
There’re another heavy weight habutai which the weight is 109g/m2. The warp and weft is triple silk yarn in 5.6tex/7.8tex.
1.2 Jacquard silk
It normally uses little bit thick yarn. By using the digital jacquard machine, we can make big repeat designs with more than 2 colors. Because of the special weaving procedure, the fabric is not plain anymore. The design will on the fabric ground and looks more vivid.
2. Silk Crepe Fabric
From the name we can see it’s the silk fabric has crepe effect on the fabric sheen surface. It has the advantages like smooth and soft touch, anti-wrinkle.
Here below are the detailed categories of silk crepe fabric.
2.1 Silk Georgette
We prefer to call it silk georgette better than georgette. Because in recent days, georgette is mainly referring to polyester georgette.
Silk georgette is one kind of fabric in very light weight. The fabric is almost transparent. And with the crepe on the fabric, it shows a very nice drape with high breathable property.
Silk crinkle GGT is an update version on silk georgette. Using 2 S twist warp yarn and 2 Z twist warp yarn paralleled with a gap between plus a high twist weft yarn in the fabric. The crinkle will expand in large size and irregular. It shows a special crinkle and the fabric is good to wear against the skin. Silk crinkle GGT has big shrinkage so the fabric is very soft. It’s the main material for evening dress because of this.
2.2 Crepe de Chine Silk
The construction is bit different for this fabric. It uses no twist or low twist single silk yarn as the warp yarn, and the weft yarn is in high twist. The weft yarn has 2 different twist directions. During the weaving, the order of the weft yarn is 2 S twist yarn, 2 Z twist yarn and over and over again. It’s a plain fabric but because of this special construction the fabric will show slight crepe on the fabric.
It has the properties same as other silk fabric like soft touch, good to wear directly against skin, breathable, anti-wrinkle which is good for making shirt and summer clothing.
3. Silk Taffeta
By using 2 boiled high quality silk colored fiber in warp with 3 boiled high quality silk colored fiber in weft to make the fabric construction tight enough.
It’s not so easy to get the dirt because of the tight and smooth surface. We use it in out coat, down jacket or Chinese traditional umbrella.
But the disadvantage is also easy to see. The fabric will easily have fold crinkle.
4. Dupion Silk
The main material for dupion silk fabric is dupion silk yarn. It has irregular yarn dots on the fabric surface. It’s the main material for shirt and house decoration fabric because of this special effect.
5. Bud Silk
The main material of bud silk is not silk. Viscose and nylon are the main content. It has flower design on the fabric so we call it bud silk.
The viscose fiber is with big shrinkage, so the flower looks more 3D effect based on its unique construction.
6. Spun Silk
Spun Silk is a cheaper silk. It made from the short lengths obtained from damaged cocoons or broken off during processing. So the disadvantages are easy to understand. It will have pilling problem. The fabric will turn yellow according to the time. And the silk surface is easy to get water stains. But it also has some advantages such as good moisture absorption, durable，breathable and it’s the good choice to make the shirt after solid dye process.
Silk fabric is not a normal fabric in our daily life but is has a unique position that can be replaced. From this blog I wish you already have a brief idea about types of silk fabric. We will be glad if you can share your understanding in comment with us. And please stay tuned for our next blog.
Have a nice day!