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Product code 101-04-0159
Habotai is a light, airy silk fabric with a slight sheen. Our habotai in lilac color is made of pure mulberry silk. It is perfect for dressy blouses, scarves, and dresses but also makes a wonderful, light lining material.
Read more| Shade: | lilac |
| Material: | 100% silk |
| Width (cm): | 112 cm |
| Width (inches): | 44 ″ |
| Weight (mm): | 8 mm |
| Weight (gsm): | 33 gsm |
| Weight (oz): | 1 oz |
| Drape: | supple |
| Care: | |
| Availability: | seasonal collection |
| Minimum order: | 0.2 m |
in stock 33.7 m
This lilac silk habotai is a fine, smooth, breathable fabric, pleasant against the skin, that holds its shape fairly well. These qualities make it an excellent lining for light garments, such as blouses, dresses, formal jackets, and kimonos. Try it as a stand-alone material in accessories such as scarves and kerchiefs, or for blouses, tops, and tunics – just remember that it is fairly sheer. Habotai is an excellent fabric for silk painting.
Habotai drapes well – it is not as fluid as crêpe de Chine or chiffon, yet not so stiff as organza. It tends rather to form soft folds and attractive billows. It is easier to cut and sew than fabrics like chiffon and crêpe de Chine, making it a good choice for intermediate sewers.
We recommend dry cleaning this fabric at a reliable dry cleaner. In our tests of how to wash silk this fabric stood up to gentle hand washing. If you risk hand washing, use lukewarm water and a delicate detergent for woolens; do not wring or squeeze dry; block dry on a flat surface. Dry iron on the lowest setting with the steam off; water may leave marks.
Yes. Silk is our specialty. All fabrics marked as "silk" in our shop are always made of natural silk. You can rely on the fact that is always natural mulberry silk unless we say otherwise. If it is a different type of natural silk (e.g., wild silk), we will say so. We describe the many types of natural silk in full detail in our post on types of silk.
Washing is generally not recommended for silk – it belongs at the dry cleaners. However, as our big silk wash test has shown, some types of silk fabrics can stand up to a gentle wash program or hand washing without harm if you follow the procedure described. That said, wash silk at your own risk. We definitely recommend testing in advance on a small sample of the fabric – because silk is a natural material it's not 100% predictable. Never use an ordinary laundry detergent – use a special detergent for wool and silk or, if there's no other option, a gentle, silicone-free shampoo.
The fabrics in our core inventory, seasonal collections and limited editions are from repeated production cycles that we have quality-tested – given proper care their colors should not bleed. Fabrics that are on offer while supplies last are one-off products that have not been individually tested, so we recommend testing on a sample. Silk may lose some color when washed in water that's too hot or with unsuitable detergent. Always follow the recommended water temperature and use detergents designed for washing silk or wool. Washing silk, though it is often no problem, is always at your own risk. Read more in our post on How to wash silk.
If you are not going to dye the finished garment, we recommend a high-quality polyester thread for sewing silk. If you want to dye the finished garment, be sure to choose a silk thread (polyester does not take dye). The choice of sewing needle and thread depends on the type and weight of the fabric – for sewing particularly fine fabrics (chiffons, georgettees, light satins, light crepes) a thinner polyester or silk thread and a corresponding thin needle are suitable. Do not use cotton thread to sew silk.
Probably the best way to tell is the burn test. Silk burns reluctantly, leaving a black crumb that you can easily crush between your fingers and smells like burnt hair. Be sure to test threads pulled from both the weft and the warp. In addition to the burn test, there are a plenty of other tricks – check out our post on how to tell real silk.
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