Silk can be machine-washed

There seem to be a lot of people who believe that silk cannot be machine-washed. Is it true? OK, I would not try to machine-wash my 370 dollars Hermes scarf, but why not kimono silk? We Japanese have washed silk kimono for over 1000 years, and I am sure that they can be washed at home. Here's my experiment.

1) This is the silk from vintage kimono that I purchased to make a bag. It is white silk with silver rose pattern. The fabric is smooth and beautiful, but it is a bit dirty. You can probably see the dark line in the middle of the photo, can't you?

2) I just put the fabric in a washing bag I bought at a 100 YEN shop (one dollar shop in Japan).

3) I filled a bucket with  cold water and put a half spoon of laundry detergent (powder) and soaked the fabric in the bucket for 30 minutes. The fabric was so dirty that I didn't think it could be cleaned only by machine washing.

4) Then I scrubbed the fabric to clean the dirty line, and put it  in my washing machine. I used cold water and gently cycle.

5) And dry it for a while...(maybe for 3 hour. Kimono silk is pretty thin and it can be dried very fast).

6) Steam iron it with high heat. It got very clean, and does not seem to be damaged.

Actually, I wash most of my garment at home. Not only cotton and linen, but also cashmere sweaters and down jackets. It is not true that those luxury materials should be treated at a professional cleaner. We can wash them, even in a washing machine :)