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Keep those fabric selvedges!
By Serena Nabeta | October 2, 2007
Every piece of fabric you buy has it – a fabric selvedge! That’s the part of the fabric we immediately cut off and throw in the trash. Now, wait a minute – let’s back up…did I actually say, throw in the trash? We as quilters, notorious for our creative uses of scraps (every little square inch!), actually throw a scrap of fabric in the trash? Yes, that’s correct! For the most part those selvedges are worthless except for one really important reason! See why!
You bought a piece of fabric, positive that you have enough to finish your quilt or project. Several months later or several years later, whenever it may be, you are horrified to find out you just need three more inches of fabric! So you call the quilt shop from where you purchased the fabric (At least you think that’s where you bought it from – you’ve visited multiple places in the last few months or years!) and ask if they still have some of that blue fabric with flowers on it. The long pause on the other end of the line tells you that particular piece is no longer at that store!
Or perhaps you’ve tried typing “blue fabric with flowers” into Google’s search box and discovered that the 2,480,000 search results would take longer to browse through than starting and completing another quilt with an entirely different blue floral piece of fabric! You are frustrated and discouraged over spending hours upon hours looking for that last three inches you need, when it could have been a 10 minute victory if you only had one thing – the fabric selvedge!
The selvedges on fabrics contain some useful information. It tells you the fabric manufacturer and collection title plus the designer. Often the style number of the fabric and a website address will also be printed on the edge of the fabric. This is enormously helpful for you and others helping you when looking for that certain piece of fabric. And don’t you think your search results will be much more encouraging when searching for “He Loves Me by Jackie Robinson & Maywood Studio“?
Not only do fabric selvedges contain manufacturer information, but also they contain little circles which are colors used in the fabric. These little color swatches can greatly help you looking for coordinating fabrics. You don’t always need to take the whole piece of yardage when shopping for matching pieces, you can just take that little piece of your fabric selvedge.
Keep those fabric selvedges! You never know when you might need them! Plus those little bitty pieces of fabric could save you hours of searching!
Just for fun: At the state fair, there was a quilt that someone had creatively used all their fabric selvedges in creating the quilt top. The quilt contained only fabric selvedges. Large, small, short or long, but they were all selvedges. If for no other reason, keep your selvedges and create a quilt with them?!?! :)
Topics: Fabric Tips, Helpful Lessons | Comments Off
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