So you're thinking of purchasing a silk comforter, or you have already purchased one and want to know more. Welcome to "Silk Comforters 101," where you can quickly learn the most essential facts about silk comforters.
What is a silk comforter? A silk comforter is a type of bed covering originally from China, but now commonly used and valued throughout the world. It is also known as a silk duvet or silk blanket, and like blankets, it is used for warmth. A silk comforter is similar to a down comforter (or duvet), in that it is a large "envelope" of fabric filled with some insulating material. Silk comforters are filled with silk floss as the insulating material, and their outer covering is also often made of silk. Silk floss is similar in color and texture to stretched-out cotton balls, but is much softer, stronger and warmer. Various types and grades of silk filling (mulberry or tussah) and casings (silk or cotton) account for the variations in quality and price.
What are the benefits of silk comforters? Silk comforters are excellent insulators and offer many benefits. They are very lightweight, long-lasting, temperature adjusting, breathable, and drape naturally over your body, making them not only practical, but also luxurious. Silk is a natural, renewable material. It is also naturally hypoallergenic, requiring no chemicals for processing. Silk comforters are an excellent alternative to down comforters, for those who are allergic to down feathers. Using silk comforters can also save you money while also helping the planet, by allowing you to lower your thermostat on cold winter nights. With proper care, a quality silk comforter can easily last 10 or more years.
Most silk comforters are designed to be used with a cover that can easily be removed and laundered. The cover has many advantages, both practical and decorative. You can change the cover often, and avoid having to clean the inner silk comforter.
How silk comforters are made
Sericulture is the art of raising the silk worm and harvesting its cocoon. The process of silk production is labor intensive. The sericulturist cultivates the worms through a careful selection of the best leaves and monitoring precise environmental, temperature and humidity levels. Like other successful manufacturing industries in China, such as lacquer and porcelain, the large-scale production of fine silks results in part from a combination of the availability of raw materials and the organization of labor and working processes. The principal stages are the cultivation of mulberry trees and bushes; rearing the silkworms, retrieving the silk from their cocoons, stretching and layering the cocoons, and then sewing a protective casing and details to form a silk comforter.
The production of silk does not absolutely require the mulberry leaf, but its superiority as a food for silkworms is evident in the higher quality silk produced. The mulberry tree does not flourish in every climate, and the suitability of the Yangzi River area accounts for some of the region's success as a silk producer. There are numerous varieties, and the best for producing fine, white silk is white mulberry. Silkworms consume a prodigious quantity of mulberry leaves, which have to be in constant fresh supply. Leaves need to be clean and dry, and the best way of rearing the silkworms is on large flat trays where both leaf and worm can be spread out in a dry, ventilated environment.
After about a month, the silkworm has finished eating, and it encases itself in a cocoon of silk, held together with a natural glue-like substance called sericin. The complicated process of obtaining the silk then begins. First the cocoons are sorted by quality, color and size, then soaked in warm water to dissolve the sericin. From this point, the silk fibers are either reeled and dyed to create the wide range of silk fabrics currently available, or stretched and layered to create silk comforters. In this process, the silk cocoons are stretched over U-shaped brackets to form what will eventually become one of hundreds of layers of silk floss. Each of these U-shaped pieces of stretched silk are washed several times and re-stretched. After thorough cleaning and stretching, the silk pieces are hung to dry in the partial sun, and re-stretched on the U-brackets for further softening and cleaning by hand. Each piece is then hand stretched into a square shape, which is then stretched to the size of an entire comforter. It is then finished by sewing and encasing these layers in a cotton or silk casing.
|
