Need advice - 100 year old silk from China
10-13-2011, 10:39 PM
#71
Junior Member
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 294
Looked through your pictures again and had a second thought. It almost looks like it may be one or more old kimonos that were cut up to make a wedding dress. If so, the kimonos may be quite a bit older than the feed sack backing.
What you are calling collar pieces may be pieces from an obi or from a second kimono.
Please see if your friend will agree to an appraisal, it may be much more valuable than she realises.
What you are calling collar pieces may be pieces from an obi or from a second kimono.
Please see if your friend will agree to an appraisal, it may be much more valuable than she realises.
10-13-2011, 10:45 PM
#72
Junior Member
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 294
Originally Posted by Debbie C
This is beautiful fabric. I believe the black spots are mold, though. I'd take the fabric to a reputable cleaners and get their take on it. Once I purchased a brand new all silk dress to wear to a family wedding. During the party, the dress literally shredded up the side seams leaving me quite exposed. Turns out, the fabric was found to be old and I was fully refunded. (I ended up wearing my husbands suit jacket for the remainder of the night) Silks can be funny....
It had probably worn to the point where there were only bands of useable fabric left but after approximately 2000 years, wow!
It all depends on quality of the silk, the weave and the care it receives over the years.
10-14-2011, 03:11 AM
#73
Super Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: England
Posts: 5,048
Originally Posted by rj.neihart
Beautiful silk! Love the embroidery! I was blessed with 150 silk scarves, from a friend who collected them for 60 years! I hand washed each one, air dried, and decided to make a few quilts. Some of these scarves came from other countries, with absolutely gorgeous designs. It took 9 scarves to make a large quilt top - then I hand quilted. I will admit, it was a challenge and I worried constantly about snagging the fabric. I took my time, and it came out beautiful! I wanted to keep each design original, this was my reason for not cutting the designs out of each scarf. I had to make sure the quilted stitches were about an inch apart, as I was afraid the scarves would shrink when washed in the machine. They all came out fantastic, and I couldn't see any new shrinkage. I used clear thread for the quilting. This is the warmest quilt we have!
10-14-2011, 03:12 AM
#74
Super Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: England
Posts: 5,048
Originally Posted by lfstamper
What if you printed fabric from the pics to use in the quilt itself and framed the real thing to preserve it for the family. Just a thought. This is too precious to use for a child's quilt.
10-14-2011, 03:15 AM
#75
Super Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: England
Posts: 5,048
Originally Posted by countryone77
I agree with the rest, this garment is too fragile and precious to cut up for a child's quilt.
One possibility would be to take pictures of portions of the garment and print them on an injket fabric sheet. For a child, cotton would probably be best, but silk could also be used. Here are some that I quickly found -- I'm sure that there are many others ...
http://www.electricquilt.com/Shop/Printing/Fabric.asp
http://www.dharmatrading.com/info/ijf.html
http://www.jacquardproducts.com/prod...nkjet/habotai/
http://www.dickblick.com/products/ja...ckw=64929-1000
One possibility would be to take pictures of portions of the garment and print them on an injket fabric sheet. For a child, cotton would probably be best, but silk could also be used. Here are some that I quickly found -- I'm sure that there are many others ...
http://www.electricquilt.com/Shop/Printing/Fabric.asp
http://www.dharmatrading.com/info/ijf.html
http://www.jacquardproducts.com/prod...nkjet/habotai/
http://www.dickblick.com/products/ja...ckw=64929-1000
Thank you for the links. Yes, I will look into this option.
10-14-2011, 03:20 AM
#76
Super Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: England
Posts: 5,048
Originally Posted by quiltmouse
I'm wondering if she thought it might make a nice "silky". Make him something else, and edge it with satin, or some of the blocks satin.
A nice quilt throw (for gentle use) could be made from the silk dress. I would consider covering each section of silk dress used with tulle now, as you make the quilt, rather than as a proventive later, so as it disentigrates it is held together/ protected.
A nice quilt throw (for gentle use) could be made from the silk dress. I would consider covering each section of silk dress used with tulle now, as you make the quilt, rather than as a proventive later, so as it disentigrates it is held together/ protected.
10-14-2011, 03:25 AM
#77
Super Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: England
Posts: 5,048
Originally Posted by shnnn
Originally Posted by quiltmouse
I'm wondering if she thought it might make a nice "silky". Make him something else, and edge it with satin, or some of the blocks satin.
A nice quilt throw (for gentle use) could be made from the silk dress. I would consider covering each section of silk dress used with tulle now, as you make the quilt, rather than as a proventive later, so as it disentigrates it is held together/ protected.
A nice quilt throw (for gentle use) could be made from the silk dress. I would consider covering each section of silk dress used with tulle now, as you make the quilt, rather than as a proventive later, so as it disentigrates it is held together/ protected.
10-14-2011, 03:27 AM
#78
Super Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: England
Posts: 5,048
Originally Posted by Baby Catcher
I wouldn't want mold on my childs quilt.
10-14-2011, 03:44 AM
#79
Super Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: England
Posts: 5,048
Originally Posted by MsEithne
Originally Posted by BizzieLizzie
A friend asked if I would make her 4 year old a quilt and I gladly said I would. She asked that I used some Chinese silk which used to be her grandmother's wedding dress. Embroidered and stitched by hand by her grandmother 100 years, may be more, ago.
There isn't enough for a whole quilt and I will need to add fabric to it. My worry is that the Silk will not hold up to wear and tear. I noticed that there is feed sack on the back of the 'collar' pieces, stabilising the embroidery.
There are little areas where there is weakness in the embroidered tapes already, mainly along the edges. There is wear and tear, water marks and also little black spots. What do you think? Is there any way to try and secure the fabric pieces with new silk or cotton?
I am open to suggestions. My friend would really like to have these fabrics on her son's quilt and I would like to try and do a good job of it.
The other question is weather machine sewing will damage the fabrics? I would really welcome all help with this one!
There isn't enough for a whole quilt and I will need to add fabric to it. My worry is that the Silk will not hold up to wear and tear. I noticed that there is feed sack on the back of the 'collar' pieces, stabilising the embroidery.
There are little areas where there is weakness in the embroidered tapes already, mainly along the edges. There is wear and tear, water marks and also little black spots. What do you think? Is there any way to try and secure the fabric pieces with new silk or cotton?
I am open to suggestions. My friend would really like to have these fabrics on her son's quilt and I would like to try and do a good job of it.
The other question is weather machine sewing will damage the fabrics? I would really welcome all help with this one!
Figuring out whether the fabric is rayon or silk will guide your choice of stabilisers. Rayon prefers a slightly alkaline environment and silk does best with a slightly acid environment. So if the wedding dress is rayon, then I'd choose either cotton or rayon as a stabiliser; if it is silk, I'd go with silk (and silk thread). In either case, I would not suggest a fusible stabiliser, the heat required could change the colour of the fabric or hasten deterioration.
Will the quilt hold up on a small child's bed? Depends on the child. I'd be hesitant to try it and would perhaps suggest a wallhanging as being subject to much less wear. Or a much larger quilt that would showcase the wedding gown pieces and be appropriate in size for an adult's bed (which would mean storing the quilt until her son was old enough to appreciate it and treat it carefully).
And yes, sewing by machine may just eat up the fabric or parts of the fabric. Stabilising with a sew-in stabliser (NOT FUSIBLE) or plain rayon or silk might help but personally, I'd be hesitant to try it. It sounds like you really don't have any excess fabric for testing.
My last suggestion is to ask your friend if you can take this wedding dress to a textile appraiser, in order to find out the value, what this is actually made of and get suggestions for treating the stains and black marks. Again, there is so little fabric there, it would be a shame to ruin any of it via experimentation.
It's a gorgeous piece!
Thank you for your message. I described the backing textiles on the collar like bits as feed sack because that is what I thought it was. You probably already know this; in China they use sacks for packing their dry produce - tea, flour etc. They are quite far back in parts of China and there are still lots of villages that still do things the 'old' way.
My friend did confirm that it is definitely chinese silk from mainland China, (she is from China herself) that was handed down the generations , that is, from her great, great grandmother to great grandmother to grandmother to mother and now to her. What part of the fabric she received is a question mark because I have 2 skirt pieces and the 'collar' pieces. It is not Japanese.
Thank you for the information and the time you have taken to write your message. It is much appreciated.
10-14-2011, 05:40 PM
#80
Super Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Port Charlotte, Fl
Posts: 2,569
I sure wouldn't make it for a 4yr old child. I would at best make like a wallhanging but to be framed it this fabric is that old it may shred as you try to work on it. It's really gorgeous and a wedding dress at that it s/b preserved if it's survived 100 yrs. You would be doing your best if you explained to her how fragile this wedding dress is and also wouldn't she like to preserve it for her GS's future what a wonderful gift to preserve for him. Good luck.Sue
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
Kathryn Garcia
General Chit-Chat (non-quilting talk)
8
09-25-2013 04:57 AM
Halfsquare
Links and Resources
0
02-22-2011 09:30 PM
