Silk comforter
Encyclopedia
A silk comforter is a bed covering, most often used as a duvet
Duvet
A duvet from the French duvet "down"), is a type of bedding — a soft flat bag filled with down, feathers, or a synthetic alternative, and protected with a removable cover, analogous to a pillow and pillow case...

, and also commonly referred to as a silk duvet, silk quilt, or silk blanket. Originally from China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, silk
Silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...

 comforters are now more common throughout the world. Their increasing popularity stems from a combination of factors, including their thermal properties, their light weight, and their natural hypoallergenic properties. The opening of the Chinese market to the world has also played a significant role in the spread of silk comforters, as China is both the world's biggest silk producer and silk comforter manufacturer.

Production and processing

Silk comes from the cocoons of the silkworm, which feeds off Mulberry
Mulberry
Morus is a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae. The 10–16 species of deciduous trees it contains are commonly known as Mulberries....

 trees in subtropical climates. When the cocoon is boiled, the hard cocoon becomes a loose ball of strong, flexible filament measuring over 1,000 meters. Usually, this ball is uncoiled and wrapped onto a spindle for use in the textile industry making everything from clothing to rugs. During silk comforter production, however, the silk filament is not unraveled, but rather stretched into a flat tangled web and layered to form silk floss.

The cocoons are first boiled to loosen the thread and remove the silkworm. Each cocoon is expanded outwardly by hand on a U-shaped wooden rack, and the ball of thread becomes a sheet of tangled fibers. This sheet is then hand-stretched again on a larger rack along with several other cocoons to make a thick, cottony bundle called silk floss. It takes hundreds of these bundles to make a silk comforter.

Once enough silk cocoons have been stretched into bundles, the comforter begins to take shape. Workers grab the edges of the bundle and stretch it wide to match the dimensions of the desired comforter, and layer by layer the comforter begins to take shape. It can take anywhere between 100 and 400 of these thin layers to make a comforter, depending on bed dimensions and desired thickness. Since it takes many cocoons to make each layer, a silk comforter may be composed of thousands silk cocoons.

Once the silk fiber layers are stacked together, they are sealed inside silk or cotton fabrics and the comforter is complete. The result is extremely light-weight despite the silk comforter's thickness. Silk comforters provide excellent insulating properties similar to down, but tend to be less bulky than down duvets. Silk is a breathable fabric, making silk comforters comfortable in a wide temperature range. Thin silk comforters are used even in the summer.

In the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, silk comforters are mainly imported from China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 or Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

 and are priced roughly the same as down comforters
Duvet
A duvet from the French duvet "down"), is a type of bedding — a soft flat bag filled with down, feathers, or a synthetic alternative, and protected with a removable cover, analogous to a pillow and pillow case...

. Unlike other natural fibers used in comforters, silk is naturally hypoallergenic
Hypoallergenic
Hypoallergenic, meaning "below normal" or "slightly" allergenic, was a term first used in a cosmetics campaign in 1953. It is used to describe items that cause or are claimed to cause fewer allergic reactions...

, and also does not require any chemicals during the manufacturing process. A silk comforter is a comparable alternative for people who are allergic to goose down comforters.

Silk comforter care

Silk comforters are easy to care for: they only need to be dried under the sun twice a year to maintain their freshness. If more thorough cleaning is required, a silk comforter should be dry-cleaned, since the silk floss layers are damaged by contact with water.

Mulberry silk filled duvets are inhospitable to bed bugs, dust mites and immune to mold and fungi. This makes them naturally cleaner than down or synthetic filled duvets.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK