Salvage a Selvage

Make a pretty chiffon flower with your fabric scraps to decorate a headband, hairclip, cardigan, or blouse!

Top: Salvaged selvage flower. Bottom: Regular scrap flower.

sal·vage

  [sal-vij]  noun, verb, -vaged, -vag·ing.

–noun

1.

the act of saving  a ship or its cargo from perils of the seas.

2.

the property so saved.

3.

compensation given to those who voluntarily save  a ship orits cargo.

sel·vage

  [sel-vij]  

–noun

1.

the edge of woven fabric finished so as to prevent raveling,often in a narrow tape effect, different from the body of thefabric.

2.

any similar strip or part of surplus material, as at the side of wallpaper.

3.

Also called margin. Philately . the surplus paper or marginaround a sheet of stamps: The number of the plate blockappears in the selvage.

I’m talking about definitions 2 and 1, respectively.

Cut off selvage (about 1.5 inches wide, ¾ yd or so).  Stitch along the edge. Gather. Sew in place. Done! (The second flower is made in a similar fashion from a long sort of weirdly triangular scrap.)

A less beautiful, but more instructive view.