Your skin loves silk, so love it back!

At Nixie we take a lot of pride & care in the fabrics & textiles we use to create our garments. Our past collections have been made of heritage silk reclaimed from silk scarves as well as vintage knitted & woven wools & cottons. 
We often have customers asking about how best to care for their garments so we thought we'd post some tips and advice!
As our current Spring Summer 2012 collection is now in our summer sale we thought we'd first post some tips about how to care for your unique Nixie Clothing silk dress or blouse.

Caring for Silk

Our Nixie Bauhaus Dresses are all individuals, created from hand selected panels of luxury 100% silk taken from heritage scarves. 

Silk is a fairly delicate fabric and should be handled with care. However, it is fairly easy to clean. It has a naturally tendency to release dirt quickly and does not require dry cleaning to keep its quality.

Washing Silk garments

1. Silk items can be hand washed using cold water but we tend to wash our garments in a cold or max. 30 degree short cycle in the machine such as 'hand wash' or 'delicates'. Do not spin the garment in a fast spin cycle.
2. Use very mild detergent to help preserve the garment’s natural oils. (You can make your own inexpensive, chemical-free powder laundry soap by combining 1 cup of soap flakes, 1/2 cup washing soda and 1/2 cup borax in a covered container. Use 1 tbsp. of the powder per load of laundry).
   
3. Make sure all the soap residue has been removed, if it's still a bit soapy give it another rinse.
4. Tip: Add a drop of hair conditioner to the rinse water to keep the silk soft and flexible.





5. Press the water out of the fabric by rolling it in a towel. Do not twist or wring, as this may damage the fabric.
6. Hang the wet garment and allow it to air dry completely.
7. Do not hang silk garments in the sun to dry.
8. Iron if absolutely necessary. Use a cool iron with a press cloth between the iron and the fabric.

Additional tips and advice

• Dry cleaning should be avoided as it may shrink certain types of silk.
• Use lemon juice or vinegar to spot clean, but test an inconspicuous area first to test for colorfastness.
• Be gentle – it’s the agitation from washing that causes this material to shrink. 
• To keep silk from yellowing, add ½ cup of vinegar to the rinse water.
• Since silk is a natural fiber, do not use bleach as it will damage the fibers.
• Be careful not to let hairspray and perfume get on silk as the alcohol will damage the fabric.
• If you have hard water, you may want to add a tablespoon of borax to the water prior to washing.

We hope these tips will be helpful to you all, silk is a beautiful, natural fabric and we love to work with it. Some of the heritage scarves used to create our collections are 50 or 60 years old! The fabrics still have years and years of wear in them and we know that by being well loved and cared for your special Nixie piece will stand the test of time and be passed down through your family for lots of little girls to enjoy....

Our Petal Tops are all unique, find your special favourite.

www.nixieclothing.com