Slippery Silk Twill! :: How To Work With Difficult Fabrics :: My Top Tips and Tricks! Easy Methods! 

Here are my tips for working with silk chiffon: 1) Square off the cut edge, either by unraveling it until it’s even, or pulling a thread (and even its neighbor, too) to create a straight line to follow with your rotary cutter. Then line up both the cut edge and the selvage along the grid of your cutting mat. Coax the fabric into position with gentle patting. 2) For chiffon, a rotary cutter with a sharp blade is non-negotiable. 3) Guterman Mara 120 thread is finer than regular all-purpose thread and is perfect for size 60/8 machine needles. 4) This one’s from Kenneth D. King: back your chiffon with tissue paper as you sew it, and mark your stitching lines on the tissue with Frixion pen, so if the needle transfers any ink to the fabric, it will disappear when you iron. Tear away the perforated tissue paper afterwards. Tweezers help. 5) Silk basting thread won’t leave an impression on the fabric when you press it.

I like to line up one of the selvages so it’s straight against a ruler (or along a line on a cutting mat) and then use sticky tape to tape the selvage to the cutting surface on that side. That way I know I have a straight edge and can flatten the fabric out from there so it’s completely flat and square for pattern placement. This is particularly helpful when cutting chiffon.

I like to use a temporary fabric stiffener, like gelatin or starch, while I'm working with it. This obviously only works on things you can wash, but I do work in rayon challis a lot.

Great tips!

I'm with you on rotary cutters. I end up trimmings bits off the pattern pieces as i cant seem to control the cutter 😂!! You have made a great job of that top. Looks lovely!

Thanks for this! I have a beautiful piece of sheer Liberty silk that has been languishing in my stash for years because I have been terrified to cut it out. Love the idea of using something other than paper for the pattern pieces! Wish me luck 😅.

Thank you Sian for this video. Making your pattern pieces out of calico first is such a great idea, which I do intend to use in the future.❤

These were great tips and I wish I had seen this before I barrelled through and cut out three different projects, that I have not yet sewn. (I tend to cut out in batches). It will probably be “interesting” to see how or if my projects turn out. One thing I would add to this list is block fusing the pieces that require interfacing. I didn’t do this either, but in retrospect seems like it would have been a good idea. Wish me luck! 🥴

Thanks for this video! Very timely as I’m about to embark on two projects using silk and I’ve been wondering how to go about it. I will prewash my fabrics, so I might try the spray starch, otherwise will probably use the tissue paper method. Thanks for your tips!

💚🖤 I'm still not going to try slippy material any time soon, but I have this bookmarked for when I decide to take the plunge. Thank you for a wonderful mini tutorial.

I guess all the quilting cotton cutting has given me the ability to cut anything with a rotary cutter. I can’t imagine using anything else. The edges are so much neater!

These are great tips! I've never tried the calico pattern method, but it looks like it works great! I have some silk I've been saving for a special project and I think I'll try using calico for cutting out. If you use a wearable mockup fabric for the calico you could also end up with a two birds with one stone situation too! But if you know that pattern is always going to be made out of slippery fabric then cutting out and keeping the calico for repeated use is also really great. When I was in fashion school, my whole senior collection was made with slippery silks and light as air chiffons. They just take a little getting used to. I would stay stitch any bias while the fabric is pinned on top of tissue paper. It's a bit of a pain to pick out any tissue pieces if they get stuck under your stitches, but saves your fabric from stretching accidentally. For A-line or skirts with side seams that land on a bias of any degree, I found it was better to let those side seams stretch vertically. You're going to level the hem anyways, and this way you avoid any puckers caused by two unequal semi-bias seams being stitched together. Also, you CAN get silk wet without giving it a water stain. (I learned this because I refuse to pay for dry cleaning - and besides, silk has been used for clothing long before dry cleaning ever existed. People of the past have been washing and dyeing silk with water for ages.) The trick is you just have to dunk the entire garment. Just hand wash it in a basin with a bit of detergent and gently agitate it with your hand, then let it soak. When it's time to take the garment out to dry, thoroughly rinse any soap before laying it out on a towel and rolling it up like a sushi roll. Don't twist or ring! Just gently squeeze the towel by pressing with your fingers. Then you can unroll and lay it flat to dry the rest of the way. (This of course means that now you have to pre-wash your silk before cutting out. And that can be a bit of a pain if you have a lot of yardage. 😅)

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Now I'm eyeing up all the slippery fabric in my stash. But I have so many other plans already! ❤

the calico is genius!!

*paused video to order silk pins* #sianmademedoit

Great recommendations! Thank you.

I'm not sure I'll ever be brave enough to sew silk but thanks for the tips!

I find my electric scissors work well with cutting out slippery fabrics. I like using clips instead of pins.

I tried working with a slippery fine silk once… and then never again 😂 Maybe I will retry in the future testing your tipps :) They sound very good 😊

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Thank you so much for all the great tips. I purchased some silk from Mood a couple of years ago and have been afraid to cut into it. First I need to decide what it wants to be…. The calico you used, any idea what the weight of it is? It looks pretty substantial and here in the US calico usually means a small ditsy print cotton fabric, at least that’s what I learned). Thanks!

When you mention you cut multiples of the calico patterns, did you mean each mirrored piece or you cut multiple layers if the same piece to make a heavier pattern of calico. Do I make sense?

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What would Calico be in the US? I think muslin fabric? If you know, please educate me. thanks!

2nd!

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I just need to know if you got your happy mail!

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