Washing and Ironing Hand Painted Silk Scarves

I was busy today doing the washing and the ironing. Sounds awfully domestic, doesn't it? Except, what I was doing was the finishing work on the batch of hand painted silk scarves that I've been working on. They've been pre-washed, then dyed, then steamed. One last bit of work, and they are all set to go.

When the scarves come out of the steamer, they are kind of cracky-crinkly (Yes, that is the technical term. At least it is now.), and still have bits of salt on them. They're pretty, but don't have that lovely flowing and shining texture that you expect from silk.

So, the next step is to wash the scarves. I put them into lingerie bags to keep them from tangling too badly in the wash. (I learned that one the hard way.) I don't put more than 3 or 4 scarves in a bag, and try to put like colors together on the off chance that the dyes run into each other.

This stuff helps keep the excess dyes from transferring to the silk. You can also use Synthropol. I put in about 1/4 cup for the wash load. The washer is on hot, and is set to the delicate cycle.

You can see how quickly the excess dye that didn't bond to the silk ends up in the wash water.

I wash the scarves twice for good measure. However, this is the same point in the wash cycle as the previous picture. You can see that there is almost no excess dye in the water--which means no dye coming off onto your skin. This is a good thing!

This is why I put the scarves in the bags. They still managed to tangle themselves up! But untangling 3 or 4 scarves is simple compared to trying to figure out a wound up ball of 12. Trust me on this.

I want to avoid wrinkles setting themselves in the silk while I'm getting ready to do the ironing, so I hang up each scarf.

While the scarves are damp but not soaking wet, I iron them dry. You can see what a difference that makes!

The beautiful sheen and flowing hand of the silk finally shines through.

I'm in the process of taking pictures of the scarves, so I can get them listed in the Etsy shop. I tried it today, but only got through a half dozen scarves before I gave up. These are lovely, light weight scarves that dance and billow in the slightest breath of a breeze...and today was windy. Boy, it was hard to get pictures when the danged scarves wouldn't stay put!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/75523547/hand-painted-silk-scarf-blue-green

http://www.etsy.com/listing/75524777/hand-painted-silk-scarf-brown-black-rust

http://www.etsy.com/listing/75525954/hand-painted-silk-scarf-black-grey-with

http://www.etsy.com/listing/75534638/hand-painted-silk-scarf-sea-and-olive

http://www.etsy.com/listing/75534996/hand-painted-silk-scarf-pink-orange

From here on out, I hand wash the scarves in cool water, and iron them dry again.

You can see the earlier parts of this project in these two posts:

Painting: http://tangibledaydreams.blogspot.com/2011/03/tutorial-silk-scarf-painting.html

Steaming: http://tangibledaydreams.blogspot.com/2011/03/tutorial-steaming-silk-scarves.html