WeatherWool® Hardcore Luxury® Fabric is the foundation of our company. And so we have gotten to know the people at MTL, where our Fabric is woven. When I was picking up some greige Fabric to deliver to American Woolen for finishing, the folks at MTL asked if I wanted the our selvedge.
Our finished Fabric has about 3/4 inch (around 1.5 cm) of "selvedge" at the edge of each bolt. Our tailors normally trim off that selvedge before using the Fabric to make garments, and that's the type of selvedge that is often included in bags of Tailoring Remnants (Fabric Remnants).
What I learned at MTL that day (the amount of info I don't know keeps growing!) is that at the end of the weaving processes, the mill removes some selvedge that is very different from the selvedge at the edges of finished Fabric ... although the Weaving Selvedge still made of the same fiber, same yarn.
Originally, I had no idea what people might do with it. But now I know that people use the selvedge to make rugs, and probably other things too. And it turns out that some people would like truckloads of this stuff, if we had that much. We don't.
The weaving selvedge we offer here is primarily intended for our clothing customer and their families. We really just thought it would be nice to eliminate some waste and perhaps give our customers more of a feel for what goes into our Fabric. We're not interested in supplying material for someone who wants to make rugs or whatever and has otherwise no interaction with us. For example, the Amish use Weaving Selvedge to make rugs, but they get their selvedge from the mills, not from us.
We have learned that this type of selvedge would work a lot better in a pillow than the Remnants I've been using since summer of 2021.
Each order of Weaving Selvedge will include enough selvedge stuff a full-sized bed pillow.
The selvedge comes in very long strips because the selvedge is trimmed from the edges of each bolt of Fabric.
Sometimes there will be a strand or two of yarn in the selvedge that is not our wool. These are used for identification by MTL. Also, to facilitate weaving, MTL sometimes lubricates the yarn. This lubrication will be removed during finishing, but because the selvedge is trimmed off prior to finishing, the weaving selvedge may still have lubricant. The lubricant will, near as I can tell from casual testing, make the selvedge burn somewhat easier than untreated yarn. It will still self-extinguish, and will leave a powdery ash, the way wool should.
We hope others can find more uses for selvedge. Here are some uses (borrowed from Remnants page):
- Pillow stuffing (working really well for me)
- Insulation for use in all kinds of places
- Ghillie Suit ... add wool scraps to the outside of anything
- Dog Bed
We will be happy to hear any other ideas and results of testing.
For each order placed we will ship to you 5 pounds of Weaving Selvedge. Colors are random - whatever we have in stock.
The $30 price of the Weaving Selvedge is just to cover shipping, boxing and credit card fees. Unfortunately, we will not be able to send outside of the USA. WeatherWool customers are welcome to come here and pick up.
Anyone interested in Selvedge may also be interested in Tailor's Remnants.
26 March 2024 --- Ralph and Alex
Not sure anyone would want to review the Selvedge ... But I didn't expect anyone to review Fabric Remnants ...
