Silkies By Lisa DeMars are hand painted one of kind Habotai Silk Scarves
Machine Hemmed 8mm Habotai Silk Scarves
Known as "China Silk", these lightweight and breezy Habotai silk scarves are the perfect weight scarves for year round wear. I offer two sizes: 8”x54” and 35”x35”. The 8”x54” are also known as "Playsilks" and are very popular with kids too!
What is 8mm? In simplest terms, momme weight describes the weight of 100 yards of silk, 45 inches wide, in pounds. So, if a fabric is listed with a momme weight of 8mm, it means that 100 yards of the fabric weighs 8 pounds. Many silk dresses and other silk clothing items will be around 8mm in weight.
I pre-wash scarf blanks in hot water and Synthrapol before dyeing to remove any leftover residue from the silk worms (Seracin), or any invisible impurities like lubricants, dirt, oil or finger prints that can cause the silk to dye unevenly.
I use Jacquard Green liquid dyes for silk painting my scarves to produce rich, transparent colors that allow the translucent nature of the silk fabric to shine through. Fixed with Jacquard's Dyeset Fixative produces a luminous dye instead of the more opaque fabric paints for silk. I use water soluble resist so there is no gummy gutta (a thick substance made from latex derived from Indonesian rubber trees).
I use Milsoft ~ a professional textile softener ~ for restoring the soft hand to each silk scarf after dyeing.
Each scarf is a one of a kind, hand designed, hand drawn and hand painted. You will never see anyone else wearing YOUR silk scarf. Every unique scarf is signed and dated.
CARE: You can machine wash with your other fine washables or hand wash. You can also use Eucalan Silk Wash which cleans and conditions the silk.