Make your own silk pillowcase (instructions)

[Misty'sMess]

http://i769.photobucket.com/albums/xx332/Mistyss/long%20hair%20photos/Photo2.jpg

Hi all

I just finished making my very first silk pillowcase! It is really easy and so I decided to make some instructions to help anyone else wanting to make their own. Here they go.

http://i769.photobucket.com/albums/xx332/Mistyss/long%20hair%20photos/pillowcaseinstructionspart1.jpg

http://i769.photobucket.com/albums/xx332/Mistyss/long%20hair%20photos/pillowcaseinstructionspart2.jpg

I hope everything makes sense :)

[Bagginslover]

That looks so easy, and yours looks beautiful! Thank you for sharing! :)

[Toadstool]

You do wonderful instructions. I am very bad at following written instructions normally, but yours are brilliantly explanatory!

[Moor_tu_lyfe]

This may be a dumb question, but is "silk" the same as "satin" with regards to pillow cases for hair health? Most of the pure silk fabric that I've seen is not shiny, more matte-ish (hard to describe) and doesn't feel as slippery soft as polyester satin. It is also very thin, and I would imagine it would be difficult to get the tension right on the sewing machine (at least on my dodgy old thing...:p)

Also, the only commercial pillow cases that I can find are polyester satin.

Great job on the instructions Misty'sMess!

[Sweet Beat]

Great instructions! I think I've just decided what to sew in school as my next project :)

[B-L]

This may be a dumb question, but is "silk" the same as "satin" with regards to pillow cases for hair health? Most of the pure silk fabric that I've seen is not shiny, more matte-ish (hard to describe) and doesn't feel as slippery soft as polyester satin. It is also very thin, and I would imagine it would be difficult to get the tension right on the sewing machine (at least on my dodgy old thing...)


Also, the only commercial pillow cases that I can find are polyester satin.


Great job on the instructions Misty'sMess!

Silk is a natural protein fiber that comes from a silkworms bum :D and satin is a weave from different fibers such as silk, nylon or polyester..

[In2wishin]

great instructions! The only thing I would add would be to finish off the raw edge of the fold either by zig-zagging or folding over about 1cm and stitching it down (or cutting so that edge is the selvage of the fabric)

[Misty'sMess]

I did finished my raw edges with a zigzag but I forgot to put it in the instructions. It is important because the silk does fray a little bit.

@ Moor_tu_lyfe I choose silk because I wanted to use a natural resource. My silk has a really soft shinny side, and a more matt-ish side, I just made sure to make the shinny side as the 'right side' and the matt-ish side is on the inside of the pillowcase.

As to the differences between silk and satin, I'm not sure. I can say that I just slept on my silk pillowcase and my hair is hardly ruffled. This is a big change from my normal bed hair when I sleep on cotton.

Hope this helps.

[KN2384]

I was thinking of this myself along with making my own hair "bonnets" to sleep in.

[LissaJane]

Thank you! I never thought I'd get into the silk pillowcase thing 'cause I doubted whether I'd ever come across silk pillow cases at a reasonable price where I live, but this actually really makes me want to go for it. I might have to purchase some silk within the next few days :D

[Lissandria]

Thankyou for sharing this, Misty'sMess. Unfortunately I don't have access to a sewing machine ATM, otherwise I would be doing this.

[darklyndsea]

This may be a dumb question, but is "silk" the same as "satin" with regards to pillow cases for hair health? Most of the pure silk fabric that I've seen is not shiny, more matte-ish (hard to describe) and doesn't feel as slippery soft as polyester satin. It is also very thin, and I would imagine it would be difficult to get the tension right on the sewing machine (at least on my dodgy old thing...:p)

Also, the only commercial pillow cases that I can find are polyester satin.

Great job on the instructions Misty'sMess!
As others have said, silk is a fiber and satin is a weave. You don't want to buy just any silk: for instance, the only kind of silk I can find near me is silk dupioni, which is very likely bad for the hair because it's rough. Polyester satin is, from what I've heard, a good substitute, especially as silk tends to be expensive, but it apparently doesn't breathe as well as silk.

[LissaJane]

As others have said, silk is a fiber and satin is a weave. You don't want to buy just any silk: for instance, the only kind of silk I can find near me is silk dupioni, which is very likely bad for the hair because it's rough. Polyester satin is, from what I've heard, a good substitute, especially as silk tends to be expensive, but it apparently doesn't breathe as well as silk.

So which would be the best silk to use, hairwise? Just any that feel particularly smooth?

I remember my mom used to do silk painting, and that silk wasn't particularly smooth, almost quite rough-ish... As Moor_tu_lyfe said, difficult to describe :p

[Dorothy]

To elaborate on what B-L and others have said above, silk is a fiber, satin is a weave. Regular weaving, which you may have done in gradeschool, you string the warp (vertical threads) then take the weft (horizontal thread) and go over, under, over, under, over, under. With satin, you go over, under, over, over, over, over, under, over, over, over, over, under. Wikipedia has a great picture of this, but the explanation is a bit confusing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satin_weave

It's soft because your hair is lying on a bunch of strings headed the same direction, with very few unders, which cause friction. The other side is not smooth, which is nice, because it keeps your pillowcase on your pillow.

You can get silk satin from Thai Silks online
http://www.thaisilks.com/index.php?cPath=1&osCsid=3j05bf9c6kjvm0dsmlfqekuvp4
That's the page that shows the satin.
They have sales, and they have good silk, and they're trustworthy. I have a lovely pile of silk from them I'll make into a pillowcase when I get around to it...

[In2wishin]

To expand upon Dorothy's comments: yes, you are looking for a slippery texture. Some have even made silk pillowcases from scarves. Another type of weave you will often see in silk is charmeuse which is essentially a soft satin.

[hellucy]

That looks so easy & pretty, I want one!
Luckily I have to go past a fabric shop later today so I may see if they have any silk or satin I like the colour of.
Thanks for the instructions.

[maria_asa]

Great instructions. I just want to add that you could also use one long piece of fabric (which would be the total lenght of a, b and the fold-in part) if you're like me and find the cutting of the fabric to be the most boring part of sewing. This would, off course, also mean that you don't need the seam on the short side.

[Vampyria]

I have a question. Recently I bought a silk scarf in some Indian store to make a pillowcase out of it. I washed it by hand with my natural shampoo. It had really strong almost metal like smell while wet and it gave me a headache. So I'm a little afraid to use it now. Or is that just normal?

[lostchyld]

I have a question. Recently I bought a silk scarf in some Indian store to make a pillowcase out of it. I washed it by hand with my natural shampoo. It had really strong almost metal like smell while wet and it gave me a headache. So I'm a little afraid to use it now. Or is that just normal?

It's pretty normal for silk to have a smell to it while wet. A lot of silk hasn't had the sericin entirely stipped from it and that has a funk all its own. A short soak in washing up soda followed by a vinegar rinse might help with the smell, but mostly it's normal and fades once the item dries.

[Vampyria]

It's pretty normal for silk to have a smell to it while wet. A lot of silk hasn't had the sericin entirely stipped from it and that has a funk all its own. A short soak in washing up soda followed by a vinegar rinse might help with the smell, but mostly it's normal and fades once the item dries.

Thanks, I'll try that too :)

[Lazy Loop]

I made up my own satin pillow cover, but I didn't make a flap at the end. Wish I had, pillow slips out easily.