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 cocoon 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 cocoons to make a tie, about 630 cocoons to make a blouse, and about 12,000 cocoons 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 dissolve in bleach. Therefore, the whiter the fibers, the silk is more refined and pure.