Silk fabric for printing: how to choose?
How to choose silk fabric for your scarf printing projects, clothing, or other projects? It must be admitted that it is a real headache.
The large family of silks is populated with fabrics with exotic names, evocative of lustrous patterns, sumptuous drapes, deep or delicate colors... Brocades, damasks, brocades, velvets, dupion, wild silk, twill, pongee, muslin, and more… How to find your way?
Depending on the origin, weaving, weight, a silk fabric can be:
- smooth like satin and pongee or textured like dupion or bourette,
- soft like satin or stiff like organdy and taffeta,
- airy and transparent like muslin or thick like the twill of Hermès silk scarves
- shiny like pongee or matte like crepe…
Here is a guide to help you choose the fabric that will best suit your silk printing project.
Fabrics for printing on silk
The first thing to know is that not all silk fabrics are suitable for printing, and especially for digital printing. This is also true for other textile materials.
In general, in addition to the material itself, which requires specific inks, these criteria should be considered:
- The texture: printing works all the better when the fabric is smooth, with a fine texture. Very hairy or textured fabrics, or those with woven patterns, are not printable. Brocade, dupion, wild silk are among
- the thickness of the fabric (that is to say the weight of the fabric): it does not prevent printing at all, but affects the more or less good penetration of the inks, that is to say the saturation of the pattern on the back of the fabric.
It should also be noted that printing is done on white fabric, so pre-dyed or yarn-dyed fabrics are excluded.
In summary, the silk fabrics used for digital printing are natural white in color, with a smooth or slightly textured texture and a weight ranging between about 5 and 16 mommes. In this guide, we review the most commonly used silk fabrics for digital printing, which can therefore be printed with your designs.
Choosing the silk fabric to print for scarves, accessories, and garment making
Fibra Creativa offers a range of selected silk fabrics for their quality, their suitability for digital printing, and their variety, to cover a range of uses and needs. Discover how to choose the fabric based on the intended use, the desired effect, and your budget, and how to obtain fabric samples.
All these fabrics are made of 100% natural silk, also called "mulberry silk", in 140 cm width.
| Weaving | Weight | Characteristics and color rendering | Recommended use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Silk chiffon | 5 MM | Light, airy, transparent. No visible color difference between front and back. |
Large scarves, dresses (with lining) |
| Pongee silk | 8 MM | Smooth and shiny. Minimal color saturation difference between front and back. |
Squares and scarves of all sizes, often machine-hemmed |
| Silk twill | 12 MM | Semi-matte, medium thickness, beautiful drape. Colors quite vivid on the back. |
Squares and scarves of all sizes, especially hand-rolled. |
| Silk twill | 14 MM | Semi-matte, opaque, beautiful drape. Beautiful colors on the front, less vivid on the back. * |
Men's scarves, double-layer scarves, twillys, snoods, dresses, blouses. |
| Silk satin | 16 MM | Very smooth and shiny, very nice feel. Beautiful colors on the front, less vivid on the back. * |
Stoles, boleros, dresses, blouses, ponchos, caftans, pillowcases. |
* Excellent visibility of patterns on the reverse side is now possible thanks to an additional specific technique.
The "momme" (MM) is an old Japanese unit of measurement still used today to measure the weight of silk fabrics. 1 momme = 4.340 g/m². The higher the number, the more durable and opaque the silk fabric.
Here are more details about each of these silk fabrics.
16MM silk satin
Natural silk satin, not to be confused with synthetic satin (polyester), has a smooth, glossy, and shiny appearance on the front.
With a weight of 85 to 90 gr/m2, it is a heavy silk fabric with a very beautiful drape. In digital printing, the colors are vivid on the front, and fine details stand out perfectly. This thick fabric is quite opaque. Ink penetration is limited by the fabric's thickness, so colors are less vivid on the back.
This silk satin is perfectly suited for making high-end women's clothing and lingerie. It is our preferred fabric for lined stoles and stole-boleros, silk ponchos, and caftans.
Silk satin is also used for decoration. It is made into very beautiful small decorative cushions and magnificent "anti-wrinkle" pillowcases!
Silk twill 14 MM
Its weight of 14 momme or 80gr/m2, its opacity, and its beautiful drape make it an excellent choice for making dresses, blouses, shirts, silk pajamas.
We also use it for double-layer scarves: men's mufflers, twillys, silk snoods....
It is a twill fabric with a diagonal weave (which gives it its beautiful "hand") with a finely ribbed appearance. Its discreet semi-matte luster and heavy drape make it the fabric of choice for men's scarves and mufflers.
High-end scarves are often made of silk twill, like the classic Hermès square (a 90×90 cm silk twill square hand-rolled) or the more recent Twilly from the same brand.
The fabric thickness limits ink penetration: colors are very vivid and saturated on the front, while the color rendering is less saturated on the back. Although a new printing process eliminates this drawback, for squares and scarves, we alternatively offer a slightly thinner silk twill (12MM) that provides beautiful colors on the reverse side.
Silk twill 12 MM
This fabric has the same weave as the previous one, with a slightly lighter weight. It offers a very good appearance on the reverse side while maintaining a nice hand feel. It is our fabric of choice for hand-rolled women's squares and scarves.
For garment making, we recommend the higher weight.
Ponge silk 8 MM
"Ponge", whose name comes from Chinese, is not a "terry" fabric at all! On the contrary, it is a smooth and shiny silk fabric with a simple weave.
Ponge silk fabric is made in various weights, from 5 MM (momme) up to 16 MM or more. We print on a medium weight fabric of 8 MM, which allows very good ink penetration, resulting in vivid colors on the reverse side. Very colorful patterns, fine details, photos, and reproductions of paintings look great on the smooth surface of this fabric. It is also a fabric of choice for those who want scarves with both sides almost identical.
Pongee silk is a good choice for squares and women's scarves of all sizes, machine-hemmed or hand-hemmed. It is also the fabric often used for promotional scarves or quality corporate gifts.
Did you know? Printed pongee silk fabric makes an excellent base for creations in nuno felt.
5MM silk muslin
Muslin is a fine and light silk fabric, with a smooth and quite transparent appearance. The printed patterns and colors are identical on both front and back, making it difficult to distinguish right side from wrong side.
Silk muslin reveals all its charm in large dimensions (90x90 cm, 120×120 cm, 70x200, etc), creating superb scarves and stoles light and airy. Ink penetration is perfect on this fine fabric, the front and back are indistinguishable.
In tailoring, silk muslin allows for effects of transparency and layering. It is also an excellent base fabric for nuno felt and a variety of other less common applications.
Its adjusted price among our silk fabrics means this fabric is also often chosen for promotional scarves.
Silk fabric samples
Nothing replaces sight and touch when choosing a fabric. To help you in your choice, you will find small printed fabric samples in our online store.
Order printed silk fabric by the meter
For digital printing by the meter on silk, the minimum order is 1 linear meter (printed dimensions 138×100 cm).
Printing silk fabric for scarves
If you want to print silk fabric to create scarves, make your life easier! Fibra Créativa offers you a comprehensive service for design development and the manufacture of your scarves. Simpler (finishing scarves is a specialist task), and no more expensive than hemming your scarves (unless you do it yourself). We offer a wide choice of formats and finishes for scarves printed on the fabrics detailed in this article, as well as various models of accessories and clothing.
Learn more about custom silk scarves.