jilly

Hi - I'm making a silk wall hanging with a few batiks, as a wedding gift. I'd like to bind it with the silk, but I am thinking I should maybe starch the silk ahead of time since I like doing machine bindings (but I might do a more traditional binding for this one.) ANYWAY, I don't think you can starch silk, but has anyone done it with success for things like this?
Thanks. Jil

Tartan

Try a little sample and see if it leaves water/starch marks on the sample. If it doesn't I don't see why you couldn't use it but it might make it extra tasty to moths? I know moths don't like synthetic fibers but they might like silk?

patchsamkim

I made a scarf of silk scraps...and did a binding with silk which I did not starch...it worked fine for me...did the double fold, and used my walking foot.

PaperPrincess

Depends on what kind of silk you are using. Silk really varies from really thin, to pretty thick. Also, I would look at how much the silk you chose ravels, as this varies also, but on the whole silk does ravel easily. I would try binding a scrap and see if it works. If not, I would use a light weight stablizer that you can set with low temperature. I wouldn't starch because you are likely to get spots on the the silk.