Salvage Your Selvages!

salvage your selvages

Now any seamstress or hobby sewist will undoubtedly have discarded that little white strip along the fabric edge without a second thought, probably a few hundred times or more. You know that “useless” strip where the manufacturer’s branding is printed…along with a few strange colored circles? Well, there’s more to it than just branding! That printing along the fabric edge is known as the fabric selvage marking and, together with keeping the fabric from fraying or unraveling, it actually contains more useful info than you’d previously imagined.

What's in a name?

Before you learn the secrets of the strip: how about that weird name?! Well, the name selvage or selvedge originated from the term self-edge, meaning a self-finished edge of the fabric. You will find that the specific weave in the selvage strip stops it from fraying entirely. It is “self-edged”.

salvage your selvages

The colored circles (or whatever other shape the manufacturer uses) contained in the selvage strip offer a wealth of guidance when it comes to color matching of fabrics for a larger project and, when placed alongside each other, the selvage markings of two different fabrics can tell you whether or not the fabrics really match, color-wise.

For example…should you be looking for a solid color match for a complex and colorful print, the selvage dots will allow you to tell whether or not your eyes are deceiving you as we often lose perspective of individual tones when a print is complex and color-rich. When dealing with two complex prints, matching more than two of the circles in each fabric up should tell you whether or not the fabrics will complement each other.

salvage your selvages

What’s even more exciting about the selvage strip is this: once you’ve used it to help you pick out colors for your project…save it! There is actually what I can only call a movement of sentimental sewists, quilters in particular, out there who religiously save their selvage strips. You’ll be inspired and utterly amazed once you’ve had a look at what some of these artists have done with their collections!

Plus, it’s not only because the sturdy, un-fraying weave makes for great pincushions, pencil pouches, and seat-covers, it’s also because there, on whatever you chose to construct out of your saved up selvage strips, stands a history of the brands you’ve used and your choices and experience of every project you’ve undertaken since you started selvage-saving! In the end, you can produce an item that's bright and detailed, a color-coded history book telling the tale of all your hard work in front of the machine! One thing’s for sure: undertaking a selvage project of your own is bound to be a rewarding and sentimental experience!

salvage your selvages

The wide variety of fonts, colors, and patterns used in different selvage strips make for incredible detail and what’s more…no one’s item, even if they use your selvage pattern, will look remotely the same.

When sewing together strips for your project, consider this: the cut edge of the selvage won't fray…instead, it may well create ribbons of the most adorable fluff, adding even more texture and detail to your piece. Keep about an inch of the actual fabric attached to your strip (to play around with) when you trim it off the main fabric. Use topstitching to sew your strips together: just within the finished edge.

RFID shielded handbag

You may not have noticed it in the project pictures, but I made the handles of the Gleam, RFID Shielded Handbag from the selvages of the Marimekko fabric I used for the bag.  If you look closely, you'll see the markings.  I used the technique detailed in the tutorial and video about Making Bag Handles from Twisted Fabric Scraps to make the handles.

Not only were these handles very strong because of the more robust nature of the selvages, but the subtle display of a brand like Marimekko was fantastic.  So many people have asked me about it and assumed the bag was a designer item.  And all this with something sewists would often just throw away!

salvage your selvages

So Salvage your Selvages!

I’m pretty sure this has given you a little bit to think about, a little colored, printed strip to think about…happy sewing and happy selvage salvaging!

What sort of things have you made using selvages?  Please share your ideas with us in the comments below.


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Karen
Karen

I have saved selvedges for years. I use them for drawstring bags, wrapping gifts, gift tags, hang tags. You can also use them to make quirky design elements. I love the idea of the twisted handles.

Judy Windham
Judy Windham

I also think the color dots tell you what color was the main color (1) to the least color used was (10) or the last color dot.

rosa marchiano
rosa marchiano

en mi pais,Argentina se desecha el orillo ,selvage,y no vienen con los datos de color, nombre de la tela etc.yo aprendi a guardarlos para hacer trabajos, cuando descubri el patchwork. ahora los atesoro y ya hice monederos,fundas carteras etc. es hermoso crear una nuev atela con los orillos.gracias por tu post.rosa

Gail
Gail

I heard a speaker who was a rep for a fabric company. This is what I learned from him:
The colored circles show all the colors in a fabric. But if you see circles that are empty or blank, it means that the fabric you are looking at is a cheaper version of the original. For example, a big box store may have the same printed fabric as a good quilt shop, but they will have the cheaper version that used fewer colors. I never knew this. So if you buy the same print from a big box store, you are not getting the same quality. Imagine my surprise when I was in Williamsburg, at one of the shops in Colonial Williamsburg, and saw fabric that had two blank circles on the selvage. It was being sold for $17/yd., and apparently it was not the best quality.

Karen Boyd
Karen Boyd

Thank you so much for this post!!!! I get so frustrated when people call the selvage salvage. You made the name clear and provided a good way to remember which it is…self edge…… I also appreciate the idea for a strap of selvage and some of the other ideas in this post. I can imagine making some tote bag handles with the selvages of the fabric.

Judith Lukas
Judith Lukas

I have used the salvages like a twill tape to stabile shoulders and on knit fabric hems to stabile as well

Eleanore
Eleanore

I made a quilt pieced pillow for a librarian friend that looks like books on a shelf. I used some of the selvedge titles that looked like good book titles and sewed them onto the spines of the books.

Eleanore
Eleanore
Reply to  Mayra Cecilia

I’d love to share, but I’m not on any social media. I love your site!

Fiona
Fiona

I have no fabric with coloured dots on it my sell edges are all plain???

Karen Boyd
Karen Boyd
Reply to  Fiona

I think this is more common on quilting cotton, but I may be wrong.

Sue Reifschneider
Sue Reifschneider

I save the selvedges to crochet a throw rug, they seem to never wear out

LauraM
LauraM

Great idea! Now that is something I would make and worth saving the selvages for!

Angela Lloyd-Abbott
Angela Lloyd-Abbott

I am new to sewing. I did wonder what the colour code was for. Thank you for clarification.

Bob
Bob

I have a big bag of selvages which I have been collecting for years. I came across a book in which the author made a selvage quilt. The selvages were cut with an inch and a half or so of the fabric print included with each strip. The selvage strips were then sewn onto squares of light muslin fabric in whatever direction you decide. Once the quilt blocks are built, stitch together and complete the quilt as usual. I saw one at a quilt show some years ago and it was very unique!

Betsy
Betsy
Reply to  Bob

Do you know the title for the book that had selvage projects?