Article: When you are ready to start handling your fabric, wash your hands with soap and water. Dry them thoroughly. This will remove any residue or oils from your hands that could spot the fabric. This is especially important if you are hand-sewing the fabric. Having tissue paper, muslin, or even butcher paper will help keep the silk fabric from slipping when you cut it with your scissors. Tissue paper is especially useful because you can continue using it to stabilize your fabric, including when you pin and sew the fabric. You can also use a spray-on fabric stabilizer, which will stiffen the fabric somewhat and make it easier to manage while you cut it. This is available at fabric stores and online. Silk pins are extra fine pins that leave very tiny holes in silk fabric. These are useful for pinning patterns to fabric without noticeably marring the surface of the fabric. Pattern weights are used to hold fabric stationary on the cutting surface so that it doesn’t shift around when you are cutting. You can also use heavy objects such as canned food to hold down the fabric. With other types of fabric, you can usually cut same-shaped pattern pieces together, doubling up the fabric. With silk, however, it’s best to cut each pattern piece individually. Silk slips around too much, and cutting through two layers of fabric might cause errors in cutting out the pattern. For pattern pieces on a fold, redraw the piece as it would be folded out. This way, you won’t have to cut two layers of fabric at once.

What is a summary?
Wash your hands before handling silk. Layer muslin or tissue paper underneath the silk layer. Spray on fabric stabilizer. Use silk pins and pattern weights. Cut each pattern piece one at a time.