Name: Debra
Message: I have some raw, undyed, unbleached, noile silk that seems to be amazingly dye resistant.  I have been told I need to 'strip' the silk before dyeing.  What is that and how do I do it?  Also, how do you 'bleach' silk?  I would love to be able to get white silk!!  Thank you!

Silk contains a gummy substance called sericin. You can remove sericin by washing it in hot water with a little detergent, soaking it for a couple of hours. Here is a link to a blog entry from "Woven Thoughts" which gives details on how one silk dyer removes sericin before dyeing.

As you are probably already aware, you cannot bleach silk with chlorine bleach, because the hypochlorite will destroy the silk. Removing the yellowish sericin will probably whiten your silk to some extent. You may be able to use a recipe for using hydrogen peroxide to bleach wool.
Otherwise, it is necessary to stick to sulfur-based discharge chemicals to bleach silk, such as
sodium formaldehyde sulfoxylate and thiourea dioxide. Be careful to follow instructions in order to minimize damage to your silk.

Sometimes a fiber that cannot be dyed turns out to be an entirely different fiber than it was sold as. "Parachute silk" may be rayon, which, since it is a cellulose fiber, can be dyed easily with fiber reactive dyes, but will not take acid dyes at all. Occasionally, fiber that has been sold as silk will turn out to be polyester, which cannot be dyed except with disperse dyes . 


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