Crossword Genius

Ship carrying pale blue soft material (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

swansdown

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'soft material' is the definition.
'swansdown' can be an answer for 'material' (I've seen this before). I'm not sure about the 'soft' bit.

'ship carrying pale blue' is the wordplay.
'ship' becomes 'ss'.
'carrying' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'pale' becomes 'wan' ('wan' can be a synonym of 'pale').
'blue' becomes 'down' (I've seen this before).
'ss' going around 'wan' is 'swans'.
'swans'+'down'='SWANSDOWN'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for swansdown that I've seen before include "Material" , "soft cloth" , "fabric" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app