How to care for your SILK Sheets

How should Silk Bedding be cleaned?

Duvets & Blankets
The Chinese maintain that merely hanging them outside in the shade to air once or twice a year is all that is required. Something like a coffee spill can be sponged off under the tap and hung to dry. If all else fails they can be dry cleaned.

Sheets, Duvet Covers and Pillowcases
These can be machine washed at 30ºC using washing soap recommended for Silk & Wool. They can then be spun up to 900 rpm, hang dried and steam ironed on the minimum setting. Basically; silk doesn’t mind water but doesn’t much like heat.

What should my Duvet Cover and Sheets and Pillowcases be made of?
The highest quality bedding that we recommend is based on Sand-Washed Habotai silk (perhaps with silk jacquard on the top of the duvet cover and pillowcase for decoration).
The words Habotai and Jacquard describe the types of weave. There are an immense quantity of different weaves of silk. They have wonderfully evocative names, like Crepe de Chine, Organza, Taffeta, Douppion, Crepe Satin, Chiffon; to name but a few. Our Habotai and Jacquard bedding is all made of long Mulberry silk. This is important as the long mulberry filaments ensure that these two fabrics are soft but strong, lightweight and not subject to 'pilling'.

We recommend this because:
They -both Habotai and Jacquard- can be machine washed at 30ºC and –if required- steam ironed.
They maintain the lightness of the silk duvet or blanket.
They enhance the possibilities that the Chinese attribute to silk, i.e. that silk worn next to the skin slows down the aging of one’s face and keeps one’s hair softer and smoother. Maybe this is because there is less friction between silk and the face and hair than is the case with other fabrics.
Habotai is not as slippery as satin, which means that you and the bedding are more likely to stay in the right place!
House and Dust Mites don’t like silk.
If you are completely surrounded by silk you are well defended!

Cotton or linen are good alternatives. They are considerably heavier and coarser –therefore more abrasive- than silk, but they can at least be washed frequently at a robust temperature (60ºC) to keep the dreaded Hose and Dust Mites at bay.

Why is Silk endowed with "Hypoallergenic" or "Anti Allergy" status?
House Mites and Dust Mites are a very frequent cause of allergic reaction in the home. One of their favorite locations is bedding. Their food source there is the dead skin that we naturally shed. Many people are allergic to the mites’ faeces. It has been observed that these mites will not –or more probably cannot- live in silk. So, provided all the non silk bedding is washed regularly to keep it "mite-free", This source of allergy can be controlled.

Why is Silk good for the health?
Silk and our skin have the same types of Amino Acids. Long ago the Chinese observed that silk is beneficial to our skin: that is to say, they believe the aging of the face (wrinkles) is delayed and it is thought that these Amino Acids are responsible.
Another theory is that the reduced friction that silk imparts is kinder to the skin and is also kinder to one's hair, which is consequently less tousled in the morning.
The Chinese have also averred that silk prevents vascular sclerosis, relieves itchy skin, and assists in preventing arthritis.

Silk Bedlinen Sizes

How can I check the Size Category of my bed?
British Standard Bed sizes are as follows:


Sizes Dimensions in cms Dimensions in ft/inches
Single 90 x 190 3' x 6'3"
Double 135 x 190 4'6" x 6'3"
King 150 x 195 5' x 6'6"
Super King 180 x 195 6' x 6'6"

Legend of Silk

According to Chinese legend, silk was first discovered in 2640 BC by XiLingJi, the fourteen year old wife of China's third Emperor -the so called "Yellow Emperor"- HuangDi.
It is said that XiLingJi was having tea beneath a mulberry tree in the palace gardens, when a cocoon fell from the tree into her cup of hot tea. She and her handmaidens were astonished to see the cocoon start to unravel, revealing a long delicate thread. XiLingJi was so delighted by its beauty and strength that she had thousands of cocoons collected and then wove them into a robe for the Emperor.

History of Silk

Silk has been regarded by the Chinese as the ultimate luxurious cloth for over 4000 years. Originally only the Emperor could wear it. Later high officials at court were granted the privilege. As production techniques improved, so its usage spread. At one point it was even recognised as a form of currency. China started to trade silk westwards when the trading route we now call The Silk Road opened in the 2nd Century AD. The secret of how to make silk was successfully kept on pain of death in China for nigh on 2500 years. Eventually it got out to Khotan, an oasis just north of the Tibetan Plain, in the 5th century. A Chinese princess was betrothed to the King of Khotan. She smuggled cocoons and mulberry seeds in her headdress.

Around 550 AD, it is said that two Christian monks successfully smuggled cocoons in their bamboo walking staffs back from Khotan to Constantinople. They had been commissioned to the task by Emperor Justinian of Byzantium. The secret, or techniques, of silk production only spread further west some 700 years later. France and Italy were the leading European manufacturers by the 15th century. Some of the Huguenots, having fled France and Flanders, set up a silk weaving complex at Spitalfields in London in the 1620s

SILK? Warm in Winter, Cool in Summer

The Eastern nobles valued Silk for its softness and warmth and preferred it for its light weight; "Like being wrapped in a soft and delicate cloud" they said. Perhaps most importantly of all, they praised its ability to seem "Warm in Winter; Cool in Summer". This is caused by its 'breath-ability' which enables it to absorb as much as 30% of its weight in moisture without feeling damp. Yet the higher the moisture the cooler it seems to the body. This almost thermostatic quality of silk means that you will not 'boil up' in the early hours of the morning, as is common with other sorts of duvets.

Silk Today

The silkworm, Bombyx mori has been domesticated for centuries. Silkworms, being flightless, are totally reliant on highly skilled humans, and are therefore extremely labour intensive. 1 Kg of silk is produced by 6000 silkworms, after consuming 200 Kg of mulberry leaves. A filament from a silkworm can be over a mile long; although half a mile is more normal. Between 5 and 8 of these filaments are twisted together to make a thread.

Today silk is grown mainly in Asia, with China steadily regaining her traditional major market share by increasing production. The demand for silk has increased steadily over time, despite the inroads made by much cheaper man-made fibres. The fact is that people prefer silk over almost any other fibre when circumstances allow. As prosperity spreads, so does the demand for silk.


Silk's natural hypoallergenic qualities have come to be increasingly appreciated across the modern world. Silk bedding is a great blessing to all allergy sufferers, who may be prone to Asthma, blocked sinuses, or other hay fever like symptoms. Many people are allergic to Dust, or House mites, and, unlike many bedding materials (particularly Down, Feathers and Wool), Silk will not accommodate these mites.