Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Silk vs. Satin

Silk vs Satin
 
Silk and satin are both smooth and soft. Though these two come with somewhat similar features and have a similar look, they are quite different in every sense.

Silk is natural; satin is artificial.
Silk is made from cocoons of silk worms. The fibre is removed from the cocoons and made into threads, which is then woven into clothes.
Satin can be produced from many types of materials like silk, nylon and polyester.

Satin is more delicate than silk and so when handling it, more care is needed. 

Silk, which is a natural protein fiber, has a shimmering appearance. The shimmering appearance is because of the prism like structure of its fabric, which refracts the light producing various colors.

Satin has a glossy surface and a dull back. Satin is made of a number of floats (interlacing). It is these floats that give Satin a glossy look and also a smooth surface.

Silk threads are hard to produce, as a single strand of thread requires silk from thousands of silk worms. This makes silk fabrics more expensive than satin.

Silk fabrics can be hand washed using cold water and it is better to avoid too much wringing as it can damage it. Satin fabrics should be dry-cleaned.

11 comments:

  1. Interesting information... I knew where silk came from, but now know the details about Satin! Thanks ;-)

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  2. Very informational. I actually didn't know that. Now I understand why silk is worth so much more than satin. Thank you.

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  3. I am a huge fan of silk—I even raised my own silkworms when I was a kid! ;-D

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  4. wow, it never even occurred to me that these were 2 different entities

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  5. thanks for that interesting lesson. I had no idea.

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  6. very cool blog. i had silkworms too and we had a mulberry tree to feed them. i remember feeding them beet leaves and they spun pink silk. :)

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  7. I love silk, especially silk sheets, so soft :)

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  8. Wow! Great to hear the differences between the two fabrics. I knew about the silk worms....but I didn't know anything about satin.

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  9. Great to know, because I loooove silk AND satin! :) Did you read that they're combining spider dna with silkworm dna to create some type of super strong silk fiber? pretty cool!

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  10. Thanks for sharing! Would I be able to use this as a guest post on a collaborative blog? Let me know!

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