Did I ruin this silk comforter?

[karmic]

I washed it. It had no care instructions, and my husband bought it in CHina, so I thought, "Hey, this is just silk. It should be washable, right?" Now it's lumpy and I can't get it to lay right. I'm afraid if I try to do anything else on my own I will most certainly ruin it. Help, please?

[Ruthla]

Have you tried gently ironing it on a "not too hot" setting?

[hibana]

Is the stuffing lumpy, or the outer fabric not behaving? If it is the outer fabric, I would suggest wetting it down and gently tugging/shaping it while it is wet, then letting it dry flat.

You didn't put it in the dryer, did you?

[karmic]

It's the stuffing that's lumpy. I didn't tumble it -- it seemed like it was in pretty bad shape by the time I was finished washing it, I didn't want to press my luck.

Will the ironing help the stuffing?

[mamasaurus]

What temperature water did you use? What kind of soap?

Is the comforter quilted, so the batting is in sections - or is it all loose inside?

It sounds to me like the batting is all lumped up and the only way to fix that is to open up the comforter and physically rearrange the batting, and/or remove it and replace it with better batting. A good quality batting shouldn't completely fall apart in the wash like that.

[hibana]

Originally Posted by mamasaurus

A good quality batting shouldn't completely fall apart in the wash like that.

Unless it is silk batting! Silk is reeled off in single long filaments to make reeled silk, but short bits and waste silk are used as stuffing/batting. A washing machine agitator will completely trash a silk-stuffed comforter. (Same with some high-performance sleeping bags) You will probably have to take it apart and comb the batting to get it fluffy again.

[mamasaurus]

So, OP - you've just got to rip open that comforter and tell us what kind of batting is in there!!!

Inquiring minds want to know!