Over Easter I went to my in-laws which was great as the weather in the UK has been so lovely at the moment. The kids had a great Easter Egg hunt round their garden and house. Hubby made up some brilliant clues and they spent ages running around inside and out following the clues and finding random eggs, although Miss M ran past some a couple of times!
After the chocolate frenzy was over MIL said she had something to show me and got out some of the most beautiful silk you’ve ever seen! This was silk bought by her father in Singapore/Hong Kong/Bangkok in the 1950s & 60s. There was a red dupion (I think) silk which might have come from Thailand. As it is my in-laws 40th wedding anniversary this year MIL asked me to make her a dress from this ruby silk!!! After I hyperventilated a few times I said yes on the caveat it might go horrible wrong and she should have a plan B for the huge party she has organised!
Do you think this is Dupion? I don’t know much about silk but by googleing, wikipedia & looking at photos that's the conclusion I came to.
There are 3 metres of the fabric so we had to be careful about the style of dress, (immediately I thought of a boat neck full skirted 1950s style dress) as we couldn’t have anything that required too much fabric and also that flattered MIL and that she liked. After spending ages looking online at modern pattern she suddenly remembered she had some old patterns from when she sewed in college back in the early 60s so she dug those out and there was the exact style we had both been looking for, empire line, a line skirt sleeveless, low necked! And guess what her measurements are very close to the size of this pattern as of course its not a multi sized pattern. I bet there's not many women who after 3 kids and 40 years of marriage could contemplate wearing the same size they did when they were 20!
I very very quickly tissue fitted the pieces in a very rough way and it seems ok, my only real concern is the bust dart placement but that can be easily rectified. The plan is to make up a muslin and she can come for a fitting and then we’ll make a final decision on whether to go ahead and cut the silk. Yeek!
In return I got some silk as well!
Is this dupion as well? It has a similar texture but doesn’t have the two tone thread that I thought dupion had.
There was a nice little fact sheet in the as well describing how to wash silk and the manufacturer!
Then saving the best for last she got out a big parcel of the loveliest silk I’ve ever seen!
A green and gold thick silk, is it a Brocade? I think this is how it could be described.
There are about 10 yards…
…and with a beautiful sheen.
I presume this is the manufacturer (Hong Kong?) but I can’t find any reference to it by googling. MIL doesn’t know what to do with the fabric and I suggested selling it on eBay/etsy but I have no idea of its value. I did a bit of research but can’t find anything similar to gauge a ball park value. How does someone go about finding the value of vintage silk fabric and what is the best way to go about selling it? I know lots of bloggers buy and sell vintage fabric and I was hoping for some advice from blog land. Any help gratefully received!
