Selvage
A selvage (US English) or selvedge (British English) is a "self-finished" edge of a piece of
In woven fabric, selvages are the edges that run parallel to the
The terms selvage and selvedge are a corruption of "self-edge", and have been in use since the 16th century.[5]
In textiles
Definition
According to Hollen, Saddler & Langford, "A selvage is the self-edge of a fabric formed by the filling yarn when it turns to go back across the fabric."[citation needed] In traditional looms, the selvage on both sides of a piece of fabric were manufactured same, whereas in modern shuttleless looms these selvages are low[clarification needed] because of cutting filling yarn and selvages looks like fringes.[clarification needed]
Different types of selvages are as follows:
- Plain selvages. These are like fabric, do not wrinkle and are used in sewing selvage in fabric construction.
- Tape selvages. These are long and made by ply yarn for strength. These are broader than plain selvages and basket weave is used for flatness.
- Split selvages. Narrow fabric like towel is woven from two or more sides together and then cutting is done. Later, these cut selvages are hemmed or chain stitched for finishing.
- Fused selvages. These are fixed by temperature which is made of ribbons which are cut in narrow widths.
- Leno selvages. These are used on some type of shuttleless looms. In this cut, selvages are locked and narrow Leno weaves are done. Loose selvages generally need tight leno weaves.
- Tucked selvages. Like Leno selvages, these are done on a shuttleless loom. Machines are used to tuck the cut fabric and fix them.
In woven cloth
In textile terminology, threads that run the length of the fabric (longitudinally) are
Handwoven selvages vs. industrial selvages
There is a slight difference between the selvages in handweaving and in industry, because while industrial looms originally very closely mimicked handweaving looms, modern industrial looms are very different. A loom with a shuttle, such as most hand weaving looms, will produce a very different selvage from a loom without a shuttle, like some of the modern industrial looms. Also in industry sometimes the selvage is made thicker with a binding thread.
Selvages of fabrics formed on weaving machines with shuttles, such as hand looms, are formed by the
In handweaving the selvage is generally the same thickness as the rest of the cloth, and the pattern may or may not continue all the way to the edge, thus the selvage may or may not be patterned. A plain weave selvage is the other option, where the last few threads on either side are woven in plain weave.
In industry the selvage may be thicker than the rest of the fabric, and is where the main
Usability of the selvage
In the decorative embellishment of garments, especially in decorative
Very often fabric near the selvage is unused and discarded, as it may have a different weave pattern, or may lack pile or prints that are present on the rest of the fabric, requiring that the selvage fabric be cut off or hidden in a hem. Since industrial loomed fabric often has selvages that are thicker than the rest of the fabric, the selvage reacts differently. It may shrink or "pucker" during laundering and cause the rest of the object made with it to pucker also.
Thicker selvages are also more difficult to sew through. Quilters especially tend to cut off the selvage right after washing the fabric and right before cutting it out and sewing it together.[1]
For garments, however, the selvage can be used as a structural component as there is no need to turn under that edge to prevent fraying if a selvage is used instead.[11] Using the selvage eliminates unnecessary work, thus the garment article can be made faster, the finished garment is less bulky and can be stitched entirely by machine.[12] This is of major benefit for the mass-produced ready-to-wear clothing of modern society. However, it is less used in homemade clothes because of the tendency of the selvage to pucker.
In knitted cloth
Applying the term selvage to a hand-knitted object is still relatively new. Most books on fabric define a selvage as the edge of a woven cloth. However, the term is coming into usage for hand-knitted objects. The edges of machine-knitted fabric on the other hand are rarely if ever referred to as selvages.
Selvages in knitting can either bear a special pattern worked into the first and last stitches or simply be the edge of the fabric. The two most common selvage stitches are the chain-edge selvage and the slipped-garter edge, both of which produce a nice edge. The chain-edge selvage is made by alternating rows of slipping the first stitch knitwise and knitting the last stitch, with rows of slipping the first stitch purlwise and purling the last stitch.
Knitting selvages makes the fabric easier to sew together than it would be otherwise. It also makes it easier to
In printing and philately
In the print industry, selvage is the excess area of a printed or perforated sheet of any material, such as the white border area of a sheet of stamps or the wide margins of an engraving etc.
References
- ^ ISBN 1-59257-201-4. Retrieved July 9, 2009.
- ^ ISBN 1-85573-385-4. Retrieved January 7, 2023.
- ^ ISBN 1-59257-089-5. Retrieved July 9, 2009.
- ^ McCall's Editors (1968). McCall's Sewing Book. Random House. pp. 198, 224. Retrieved January 7, 2023.
- ^ "selvage". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ "Weaving Terms and Expressions". Silver Birches. Archived from the original on 2008-12-27.
- ^ Watson, Kate Heintz (1907). Textiles and Clothing. Chicago: American School of Home Economics.
- ISBN 978-0-312-37892-9. Retrieved July 9, 2009.
- ISBN 0-7100-6979-0. Retrieved July 9, 2009.
- ISBN 0-8019-8496-3.
- ^ The British Rayon and Synthetic Fibres Manual. Harlequin Press. 1954. p. 232.
- ISBN 0-86573-308-2. Retrieved July 9, 2009.
- ^ ISBN 1-58062-727-7. Retrieved July 9, 2009.
- ISBN 0-671-55233-3.