Help! I have problems with soap residue in my silk!

[francesfelt]

Hello,
I am new to the forum and am hoping that with all your experience I will be able to get some helpful feedback. I did a lot of felting years ago and am now getting back into it. My problem is that I seem to be getting some fine soap residue left in my silks. Mostly noticeable on the black chiffon. I have tried all different kind of soaps (castille, Murphy's, Sunlight dish soap) I have tried to play with Borax to soften the water...our water is not very hard here in Pemberton, BC.  I have tried rinsing all my equipment, dousing with vinegar to get rid of any soap residue in my sponges and equipment. And I definitely rinse out my finished felt with vinegar at the end. I am pulling my hair out here! You can actually see the lines of the bamboo blind in the residue, also the circles from the bubble wrap that I use. It's like the soap is getting pushed onto the silk fibre permanently. 

If anyone has any insight to share I would love to hear any and all thoughts on this technical matter!

[wolgelukkig]

Sorry, never had that, hope someone has some advise for you.

[MTRuth]

Is the silk dyed by hand? Perhaps it is the dye being pushed out as opposed to soap residue. This is just a thought off the top of my head. I have never had this issue with soap residue. But I have had the dye come out of the silk.

[francesfelt]

no, the silk is a commercial black silk. I am wondering if it could be the chlorine in our tap water??

[MTRuth]

Can you show us a photo? That's a possibility with the chlorine.

[Pandagirl]

Usually the type of soap is not an issue especially if you do a final vinegar rinse. I’ve not heard of this, perhaps Ruth is right about the chlorine. Although here in the US we routinely have chlorine in our water supply.have you checked the ph of your water supply?

[Shepherdess]

A picture might help. It sounds like you are doing everything right.
I haven't had a problem even with the black. I have really hard water and do not soften it. Out city uses something different than chlorine now but I don't have a problem when I am teaching in town.
Rinsing in vinegar usually get rid all the left over soap.

[francesfelt]

thanks guys. Sorry i can't seem to post a picture...need to have an URL...? Apparently we put Sodium HypoChlorite in our water...apparently more like a bleach. I'd be surprised if it was strong enough to acctually "bleach" the silk. I'm going to start sampling with filtered water...

[MTRuth]

Some of the commercial black silks will "discharge" with very little bleach. If you have a social media account such as Facebook or Instagram, you can post a photo there and then you can use the insert/embed button to add your photo here.

[francesfelt]

thanks Ruth! I just added the image

[francesfelt]

this is a commercial black silk. you can see the circles on there from the bubble wrap I use. I wonder if the pressure is "pushing" the Chlorite on to the fibres forcing it to discharge???

[MTRuth]

This does look like it has discharged to me. Perhaps try with a different water to see if that makes the difference? As you said, try the filtered water although I'm not sure how the filters will affect sodium hypochlorite.

[Shepherdess]

I don't see a picture or a link?

[MTRuth]

It's at the very top Ann.

[zed]

That is bizarre! You can even see the identations of the bubblewrap bubbles. It looks like a photogram. Could it be a combination of the chemicals used? My first thought was borax crystals, but it does look like a print of the bubblewrap on the black. I didn't do enough chemistry at school to help, sorry.