making a quilt from men's ties
 

When you make a quilt or anything from men's silk ties does that mean you have to dry clean it or can it be washed? I have not used silk much so have no clue. I have seen beautiful things made of the ties.

Great minds. I just asked about silk quilts in another thread (Has anyone made a silk quilt?) and got lots of good responses, including mention of ties. I particularly liked the idea of mixing with velvets for a crazy quilt. Ties are prone to picking up contaminants because of where they're worn; dry cleaning isn't a bad idea.

I think the main thing with ties is the interfacing, etc. could shift or shrink if washed. I speak somewhat from experience as I washed one of DH's ties once when we were traveling and he got a bad stain. It was completely wonky and ruined after that. The tie material (a synthetic, not silk) was OK but the interfacing and lining skewed. If I were making a tie quilt I'd prewash all the ties before disassembling. I'd guess that more ties are synthetic these days than silk.

I wash all ties as is when I buy them. Just on a gentle cycle with liquid wool wash type detergent. Generally here in Australia we line dry, so that's where they go next. After that I deconstruct them....washing them gets rid of any chemical residue from being drycleaned and removes odours/dirt. This process sorts the 'wheat from the chaff' and so far have only discarded a handful (dye runs, damage or ratty fabric). This way you know how they will stand up to use. Technically the finished item can then be gently washed rather than drycleaned.

I've made a tie quilt, I hand washed all the ties in woolite to remove sweat and cologne. I line dryed them, the silk ones held up very well, only the older rayon type ones from my grandfather had deteriorated to the point that the fabric was unstable. Interfacing is a must due to raveling and the bias of the ties. Mine was a mixture of all types of materials. Since the 70's and 80's polyester was big.

I like your style :)

For those of you wishing to work with silk, you may find this information interesting. I have been using silk batting for a few years now because of it's hyperallergenic properties. This also applies to silk fabric.
http://silkcomforter.info/silk_hypoa...roperties.html

I put mine in the machine on cool,gentle with oxyclean. I dry them on a cool,short setting. Then I de- bone them. If they don't survive that treatment...I don't want them in a quilt.

There have been previous post on men's ties for quilts. Try doing an Advance Search located in the green bar on the right.