FABRIC FAMILY · Sheer · 100% MULBERRY SILK
Fine, semi-sheer and gentle — the quiet sheer silk.
Batiste is a fine, closely woven plain-weave silk — light enough to be semi-sheer but woven densely enough to be stable. Voile is its more open sibling: lighter, airier, and closer to a gauze in transparency but with a smoother surface.
The family exists for garments that need to be airy without being fragile: summer shirts, Christening and babywear where softness matters, embroidered panels, and lightweight linings where habotai feels too slippery. It is also a favourite base for hand embroidery because the weave is even and closes up well around stitching.
Interlacing diagram — warp ends vertical, weft picks horizontal. A dark cell is a point where the warp passes over the weft.
Silk batiste and silk voile are the lightest plain weaves in the range — a fine, well-set cloth in the 6 to 10 momme band. The sett is high for the yarn count, which keeps a very light cloth from going limp.
At this weight the cloth is semi-sheer and needs a lining or a double layer for most garments. It is used for fine blouses, linings under couture, and as a base for very soft scarves where a heavier silk would fight the drape.
Understanding the structure is the cheapest way to predict behaviour: the length of the float decides the lustre and the snag resistance, and the twist in the yarn decides how much the cloth creases. If you are choosing between two families, the weight chart and the fabric selector filter on both.
Momme fixes the price, the opacity and the drape. The table below is the range we actually quote for Batiste & Voile. The exact weight and width are confirmed in writing on every quotation.
| Momme | Approx. gsm | What it is for | Qualities |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 mm | ≈ 22 gsm | Voile: airy shirts, babywear, embroidered overlays | Voile |
| 6 mm | ≈ 26 gsm | Voile: airy shirts, babywear, embroidered overlays | 6 mm Batiste |
| 8 mm | ≈ 34 gsm | Batiste: shirts, light dresses, soft linings | 6 mm Batiste, Voile |
| 10 mm | ≈ 43 gsm | Batiste: shirts, light dresses, soft linings | 6 mm Batiste, Voile |
| 12 mm | ≈ 52 gsm | Heavier batiste for trousers, dresses and handworked panels | 6 mm Batiste |
Not sure which weight you need? The momme chart converts every weight to gsm and matches each band to the garments it serves, and the selector filters the whole library by weight and application.
Typical applications in this family are summer shirts, Christening and babywear, hand embroidery, semi-sheer dresses, soft lightweight linings. Each link opens the buying guide for that application, with the weight windows we recommend and the fabrics our clients actually order.
Habotai is smoother and slipperier and is used mostly as a lining. Batiste is finer, slightly more matte and holds embroidery better. Read the Silk Habotai guide.
Silk is not difficult to sew, but it punishes the wrong needle. The parameters below are the ones our clients converge on for this weight band; test on an offcut first, because a needle size that is fine for one finish will pick threads in another.
| Parameter | What we recommend for 5–12 mm (≈ 22–52 gsm) |
|---|---|
| Machine needle | 65/9 or 70/10 |
| Stitch length | 12–14 stitches per inch (2.0–2.5 mm) |
| Thread | Fine mercerised cotton, silk-finished polyester, or spun silk — matched to the shell so the seam does not pucker |
| Interlining / support | 15–25 gsm weft-insertion or a silk organza self-facing |
| Pressing | silk setting (around 110–130 °C), reverse side, pressing cloth |
| Pre-shrinking | cold soak 10–15 minutes, or thorough steam; dry flat |
| Seam finish | French or hairline seam on anything sheer; overlocked and turned on opaque weights |
Planning quantities, from standard block patterns. Figures are for a plain layout with no pattern repeat to match.
| Garment or item | At 114 cm width | At 140 cm width | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scarf 90 × 90 cm | 1.0 m | 1.0 m | Includes a narrow hand-rolled hem; allow more for a wide hem or a border print |
| Camisole or shell top | 1.2 m | 1.0 m | Bias cut; add 15% if the design is cut on the true bias |
| Blouse or shirt | 2.0 m | 1.6 m | Straight body, set-in sleeve; more for a gathered or oversized body |
| A-line skirt | 1.5 m | 1.2 m | Above-knee; a full circle skirt needs roughly double |
| Straight dress | 2.8 m | 2.2 m | Knee length, no train, bodice and skirt from one length |
| Bias slip dress | 3.2 m | 2.6 m | Bias layouts waste more; buy the length the pattern states, not the flat measure |
| Evening gown with train | 5.5 m | 4.5 m | Floor length; fitted bodice plus a trained skirt needs a second length to match |
| Standard pillowcase 50 × 70 cm | 0.7 m | 0.7 m | Envelope closure; pair two if the fabric has a directional nap |
| Curtain panel, 2× fullness | — | 3.0 m per metre of drop | Rule of thumb: drop × 2 to 2.5 for pencil pleat, plus hem and heading allowance |
These are planning figures from standard block patterns, not a cutting guarantee. They assume no pattern matching and no nap. Add 10–15% for a large repeat or a one-direction print, and add your shrinkage allowance before you order. If a program is costing on metres, send us the marker and we will quote against the actual consumption.
Every roll is inspected before dispatch, but cloth is a natural product and dye lots vary. These are the eight checks worth making at goods-in — they take two minutes and they are the difference between a claim and a write-off.
| Check | How to do it | What is a problem |
|---|---|---|
| Shading, side-to-side and end-to-end | Lay the cloth folded end to end and across the width under daylight or a D65 lamp. | Any visible step between the centre and the selvedge, or between the start and the end of a roll. |
| Bowing and skewing | Square the cloth on a table and measure the diagonal, or check a printed repeat against the selvedge. | The weft running more than a few centimetres off square across the width — it distorts every panel cut from it. |
| Slubs, thick and thin places | Expected and structural in dupioni and shantung; check for consistency across panels. | A slub count that varies sharply between panels of the same garment. |
| Broken ends, floats, snagged yarns | Hold the cloth up to a light source and scan across the width. | Any broken filament on a satin face — it will run under tension. |
| Crease marks and chafe marks | Unroll flat and look across the surface at a low angle. | Permanent creases pressed into a finish, or abraded lines where the roll has rubbed in transit. |
| Soiling, oil and water marks | Scan both sides; some marks only show on the reverse. | Any spot. Silk stains cannot be safely spot-cleaned before dyeing. |
| Width short against the ticket | Measure the usable width between the selvedges, excluding the pin-holes. | Less usable width than the quotation states — markers are often drawn tight. |
| Hand and finish against the approved sample | Compare to the bulk sample you signed off, in the same lighting. | A softer or firmer hand, or a difference in lustre. Finishing drifts between dye lots. |
Every roll we ship is inspected before it leaves, and any piece with a defect is cut short and the metrage credited rather than passed on. Even so, check the cloth before it goes under the knife: once a piece is cut it is accepted. Report anything within seven days of delivery with the roll number.
Stock colours are available from 1 metre, which makes sampling practical. Custom dyeing starts at 40 metres per colour with a lab dip approved before bulk; digital printing starts at 40 metres per design after a strike-off. Widths are 114 / 140 cm, and the momme tolerance is stated on the quotation rather than assumed.
For a production program, approve a one-metre cut in the bulk colour before the roll is dyed — screen colour and cloth colour are not the same thing, and silk batiste & voile fabric is a family where a shade difference shows across a seam.
Hand wash cold with a pH-neutral silk detergent, or dry clean. Do not soak or wring; roll in a towel and dry flat away from direct sun. Press on the reverse with a cool iron through a cloth. Expect 3–5% shrinkage on the first wash, so pre-shrink before cutting a production run.
A fine, densely woven plain-weave silk, semi-sheer at lighter weights and near-opaque at 12 mm. It is softer and more matte than habotai and is often chosen for shirts, babywear and hand embroidery.
They are close relatives. Voile is more openly woven and more transparent; batiste is denser and has slightly more body. Both are light plain-weave silks in the 5–12 momme range.
Yes — it is one of the best silk bases for hand embroidery because the even weave closes around the needle and holds stitch definition without distortion.
Ask for a burn test on a cutting: mulberry silk burns slowly, smells like burning hair, and leaves a brittle black bead that crushes to powder. Polyester melts, smells sweet-acrid and leaves a hard bead. We supply 100% mulberry silk and state the composition on every quotation; if you need formal confirmation we can arrange third-party fibre analysis on the bulk.
Standard widths are 114 cm and 140 cm, and the usable width excludes the selvedge. Wider widths are woven to order on a minimum quantity. If a marker needs a specific width, tell us before quoting — the price is calculated on the width as well as the weight.
Silk typically relaxes 3–8% on the first wet treatment, more on washed finishes and less on a fabric that has already been sand-washed. The safe approach is to pre-shrink a full length before cutting a production run, or to have the piece steam-shrunk. Do not guess: the allowance belongs in the marker, not in the pattern.
Yes. Send a physical swatch or a Pantone reference and we dye a lab dip for approval before bulk. Custom colours start at 40 metres per colour. Screen and monitor colours are not a reliable reference — a photograph of a fabric is two colour conversions away from the cloth.
Stock colours dispatch in a few working days. Dyed-to-order runs need the lab dip approved first, then dyeing and finishing; printed runs need a strike-off approved before bulk. The quotation carries the confirmed date for your quantity, and we would rather quote a longer date and meet it.
Yes. Stock colours are available from one metre so you can test drape, dye uptake and washing before committing. We post swatch cards worldwide; tell us which families you are comparing and we will send the relevant colours.
One metre, any stock colour, posted worldwide. Tell us the weight and we will send the closest match from the shelf.
BUYING QUESTIONS
Minimums, lead times, colour approval and what the price is made of.
SILK WEIGHTS IN DETAIL
What we actually weave at each weight — the families, the qualities, what it suits and how it sews.