Hello dears, summer is here and finally the time for airy, colorful tops – and right now you can sew a beautiful silk top with fantastic color brilliance out of silk. Because silk fabrics have particularly strong colors. They are also delicate, light and have a great drape. Perfect for summer. But how do you actually sew silk? The fabrics belonged to the more expensive category and many do not dare to touch them. That’s how it was for me for a long time. Until I discovered this beautiful silk fabric while strolling through Milan.
Time to finally dare. I read up on the internet and got a lot of tips from my neighbor who was a dressmaker before she retired and is always there to help and advise me. Just great when you can share so much knowledge and experience.
And if one or the other of you would like to try this wonderful material, I have put together my tips using these instructions and hope that they can help you.
I mainly used the BERNINA 475 QE Kaffe Edition to sew the silk top, the BERNINA L 860 was also used briefly.
Sew a silk top – let’s get started
material and pattern
First, of course, you need silk fabric. These are also available in different variations – chiffon, satin, dupion… I don’t want to go into too much detail here, the topic is incredibly exciting, but also very extensive.
Flowing silk fabrics such as chiffon or satin are more suitable for this project. I used a colorful silk satin because you can use it unlined.
In the pattern for sewing the silk top, I chose a plain, simple cut for my first attempts with this material, which I have sewn a few times before. This has the advantage that you can first concentrate on the new material when sewing without having to think about complicated instructions and cutting. And with such a great fabric, there is no need for flourishes. A simple top made of the luxurious material looks great all by itself.
The pattern I used here is called “Frau Helen” is by Studio Schnittreif and can be found here: Top Frau Helen
In addition to fabric and pattern, you now need a few important ingredients that have a significant impact on the sewing result.
So it is important to use special needles for your sewing machine. A fine, fresh needle prevents you from damaging the fabric and pulling unsightly threads. I used the Schmetz Black Super Fine needle.
Not only the machine needle should be suitable for silk, even the pins should fit. Here there are extra fine pins for silk. These should also be as new as possible and still sharp so as not to damage the fabric.
The sewing thread does not have to be made of silk, but should be of high quality so that the thread runs cleanly through the fabric when sewing.
Step 1: Preparations for the silk top
First, the silk is prewashed. There are all kinds of tips and tricks here, some of them have probably even successfully washed the fabric in the washing machine. Since the material was very expensive and I didn’t want to take any risks, I proceeded very conservatively.
For this I put the silk in lukewarm water with a little special silk detergent. Handle the wet silk very carefully – the wet fibers are very fragile. Heavy kneading or even wringing should be avoided here. Leave the silk in the water for a few minutes before carefully rinsing it out with clear water.
Then spread the fabric out on a large towel and carefully roll the fabric up in it. This will remove some of the moisture from the fabric without wringing it out.
Then let the fabric dry flat. The fabric should not be hung out to dry as it may warp or water stain.
If you want to iron the fabric, you can do this while it is very slightly damp at the lowest setting. Try this on a leftover piece first.
Step 2: Cutting Silk
To cut the silk, you should use very sharp scissors. If the scissors are already a bit blunt, you could pull threads in the fabric.
There are quite a few ways to transfer the pattern. I like to lay out the pattern pieces, mark the outlines with chalk, including allowances, and then carefully cut out. Also transfer the markings from the pattern onto the fabric with tailor’s chalk.
On the sides I give a little more allowance (1.5cm) than described in the pattern.
You can also carefully secure the cut with pins. When cutting twice, make sure that the layers do not slip, silk is more of a “slippery” material.
Make sure your hands are clean when handling. Hand cream or similar can cause irreversible stains on silk.
Step 3: Sew the front of the silk top
First sew the darts of the silk top as usual. Remember to use the fine, fresh needle in your machine. The straight stitch with a rather short length of about 2.5 is suitable for sewing.
After you have sewn the darts, the upper edge of the front part is trimmed. So that this area remains thin later, I used the overlocker with the narrow 3-thread seam.
The upper edge of the back piece is also trimmed in this way.
Carefully iron the top edges of the front and back pieces to the left at the lowest level according to the instructions.
Step 4: French Seams
This step is a bit more complex than usual, but with fine fabrics such as silk, this type of processing is worthwhile for the best possible result. The French seam is also suitable for transparent fabrics such as silk chiffon.
To do this, first put the front and back pieces together, wrong sides together, and pin the sides together. Then sew along the sides of the silk top using 7mm straight stitch.
Then carefully cut back the seam allowance to a few millimeters and carefully iron the allowance apart. Now turn the silk top so that the right sides are on top of each other. Now sew a second time along the sides with 7 mm. The open edge is hidden in the seam. This way the edge can no longer fray and also looks neat from the left.
In this picture you can see the left side of the silk top: A clean side seam with no visible edge of the fabric.
Step 5: Bind the armholes and sew the straps
Straps and armholes are sewn from bias tape in one step. The bias binding is cut from the silk at a 45° angle to the grain. The strips are then pre-ironed accordingly.
You can now sew on the bias binding in one step as indicated in the pattern or, like me in this example, play it safe and work in two steps.
First, I pinned the ribbon right sides together along the armhole according to the instructions in the instructions and then sewed it on with an allowance of 9 mm. Then I folded the ribbon and pinned it. The strap length was known to me from my test piece. If this is not known, it is advisable to try it on briefly before sewing it on completely.
Mark the place where the bias tape meets the side seam plus 1 cm allowance on each side and cut the tape accordingly. Sew the ribbon together with an allowance of 1 cm.
Now the bias tape is folded all around and sewn on tightly.
Step 6: Sew the hems of the silk top
First try the silk top on and mark the desired hem length. I only use 1 cm hem allowance for silk.
In order to sew the hem of the silk top evenly, I first set an auxiliary seam with a long stitch length at a distance of 5 mm parallel to the edge. Using this auxiliary seam, the hem can now be ironed/pinned accurately. Fold the bottom edge twice by 5mm.
Now the hem is sewn on with a 4 mm distance to the edge.
And your elegant silk top is already sewn.
How do you properly care for silk?
Last but not least, a few tips for caring for your finished silk garment:
- It is best to keep the top wrinkle-free on a hanger in the wardrobe. This also avoids solar radiation, which unfortunately does not please the little fabric in the long run.
- As with all clothes, try to avoid stains. With silk, water often stains!
- Sweat doesn’t particularly like silk either, so you should wash the silk top carefully by hand after a warm summer’s day.
- It is generally recommended to wash the garment by hand. There are silk fabrics that, according to the manufacturer, are machine washable, but such a self-sewn top is a little more complex and it certainly doesn’t hurt to play it safe with such special pieces of clothing.
I hope the tips will help you, in this sense I wish you a lot of fun sewing and trying out this great material.
