The Secret of Making Silk
Silk is soft and luxurious. Unlike most other fabrics, silk didn't come from plants. It came from an animal called the silkworm. The silkworm is the caterpillar stage of the silk moth.
Silkworms spin cocoons of fine threads, which are woven together to make silk. Collecting these threads was a huge job.
First, thousands of silk moth eggs were kept on dry, shaded racks. When the tiny silkworms hatched, they were carefully protected and fed chopped mulberry leaves. Then the silkworms were set in twig frames, where they would spin fluffy white cocoons. To keep the caterpillars inside from turning into moths, the cocoons were baked, steamed, or put in salt water. Then the cocoons were boiled to loosen the silk strands, which were twisted together to form a single thread. Weavers used these fine threads to produce silk fabric.