silk facts

Silk is made from the Bombyx Mori moth, which is blind and flightless.

Newly hatched silkworm multiplies its weight by 10,000 within a month and sheds about 4 times.

30,000 silkworms will eat a ton of mulberry leaves to produce approximately 12 pounds of raw silk.

5,500 silkworms are required to produce 1 kg (2.2 lbs) of raw silk.

200 pounds of mulberry leaves are needed to produce 1 pound of raw silk.

It takes a silkworm 3 - 4 days to spin a kookoon around itself.

Each silk filament is 600-900 meters (1,970 - 2,950 ft) long.

2,500 - 3,000 kookoons are used in making just one yard of woven silk fabric.

It takes about 110 kookoons to make a tie, about 630 kookoons to make a blouse, and about 12,000 kookoons to make a silk-filled comforter.

Silk, as a fiber, has amazing tensile strength which allows it to withstand great pulling pressure.

Pure silk can be identified by a performing a "burn test". Burning silk produces an unpleasant smell and the fiber turns into a powdery ash. Silk behaves similarly to wool, in that when the source of flame is removed, the silk ceases to burn.

Pure silk fibers desolve in bleach. Therefore, the whiter the fibers, the silk is more refined and pure.