Sewing with Silk: Part 2
- Angie Pitt
- Jul 27
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 28
This beautiful Liberty Monument Twill 'Prospect Road' silk was a 50th birthday gift from some very special friends, and at £75 per metre is by far the most luxurious fabric I've ever sewn with, so the fear of cutting into it was real! To show off the gorgeousness of the print I chose to make the classic Friday Pattern Company Saltwater Slip dress, which worked perfectly.
Although I've sewn with silk once before, I felt like I needed all the advice I could get before I took my scissors to £150-worth of precious Liberty fabric, so I signed up to The New Craft House's Sewing with Silk one-day course. This was a brilliant, practical course in which we worked with an amazing seamstress who had made hundreds of silk wedding dresses and was so skilled, watching her work was inspiring. Over the day we made a silk True Bias Ogden Cami putting everything we learned intro practice step by step. I used a black crepe-backed deadstock silk from my stash for the cami. I really recommend the course if you're able to get to London - it was a great day, we learned loads but also laughed so much (probably too much) AND got to shop at The New Craft House with a discount afterwards.
Anyway, back to the dress. I'm still learning as I go, and these two silky makes are far from perfect, but I definitely have more silk-sewing skills than I did a year ago. So, as well as the techniques I listed in Sewing With Silk Part 1, here are six more nifty tricks to try if you're planning on sewing with silk.
Cutting silk
Always cut silk on the flat (i.e., don't double over the fabric and cut on the fold). Line up the selvedge with the straight edge of your cutting table and tape down with washi tape or hold in place with pattern weights. I don't have a big enough cutting table so I lined my selvedge up to the straight edge of a floorboard in my hallway. #improvisation
Instead of cutting around the pattern piece, trace around it with tailor's chalk or an erasable pen (I use the Proscribe erasable gel pens which are heat erasable - but do always check on a scrap of fabric first). Draw a dotted line along the fold line and then flip the pattern piece over and trace around the other side. Then cut around the drawn trace line (don't cut the dotted line!). Although this takes longer, you can check whether your fabric has slipped as you go, and correct any mistakes before cutting into the fabric.
Handling silk
Handle your silk with care and as little as possible - silk can warp very easily. When you're sewing, push your sewing machine back so you have more space in front of it - this means that the weight of the fabric can be supported on the table and is not hanging down and potentially stretching out of shape.
Seams
French seams are a lovely way to finish silk, and to ensure that your garment looks beautiful on the inside as well as outside. But silk frays a LOT, so don't skip trimming down the first seam otherwise you'll have really annoying 'whiskers' of fine silk thread poking out of your finished seam. I also invested in some silk pins which are finer than regular pins, and are less likely to snag the fabric. As before, I used the tissue paper method to avoid the silk puckering as it went through the sewing machine (see Sewing with Silk Part 1) and I used a fine microtex needle.
Pressing silk
I was surprised to learn on the course that, as a natural fabric, silk takes heat and steam really well. I'd only ever pressed silk on the coolest setting of my iron assuming it would damage easily, and so I was dreading making the bias binding for this dress. But actually I found this silk could take the second-hottest setting on my iron, and LOVED steam...and as a result what could have been a slippery disaster pressed up a dream! You can also use steam to give the silk some grip if you find it slipping when you try to press it. I use the Russell Hobbs Colour Control Pro 2400W iron and really recommend it, but there are plenty of other great irons on the market too.
NB Always check your heat setting on a scrap of fabric first!!
Hemming silk
For my camisole I used a pin hem which is a neat, narrow hem and much easier to sew than a rolled hem for non-experts like me. Rather than try to explain it myself, I've linked to a really helpful tutorial on the (excellent) Forget-me-Not patterns website. It gives a lovely, professional-looking finish.
I would have used the same finish on my dress but...well, I forgot. Actually I used so many brain cells mastering sewing a french side seam with a side slit (using another excellent tutoral from Notches Sewing) I think I'd run out of brain capacity by the time I got to hemming...
Breathe!
And lastly, give yourself lots of time for a project using silk - don't try to sew silk under pressure! Slow down, take lots of breaks and enjoy the process of slow sewing, being careful with every stitch. And when things get frustrating...as they inevitably will....walk away, have a cup of tea (or something stronger) and take a deep breath. Silk looks and feels absolutely beautiful, but it can be tricky to cut and sew and, even with all the tips, things can still go awry - and that's ok! The beauty of dressmaking lies in the unique imperfections of every garment you make, and the story that tells of your sewing journey (at least that's what I tell myself).
Happy sewing!
Angie x
