Description
Premium Eco-friendly, light weight handloom selvedge denim fabric, woven out of 100% cotton mill-spun yarn. The fabric is offered in a standard width of 40 inches (approx. 1 meter).
This is a completely artisanal fabric, woven by master crafts-persons on traditional wooden frame, hand & foot operated looms, without using electricity, at any stage of the process.
The fabric is hand-dyed with natural / vegetable dyes, extracted from Onion Skins, to a pinkinsh / brownish shade, in a hot dye bath.
It has very high breathability, is friendly for the human skin, and very comfortable for the wearer, in all weathers.
This fabric is also available in the organic cotton variety, on specific requirement.
SKU: LWHD-FBD-3030-RB-OS
Generally, since denim conventionally is a warp-dyed fabric, we dye the warp yarns in desired colors and use weft in udyed state for making handloom / khadi selvedge denim fabric. As a result of this, the face of the fabric appears to be colored, and the back appears to be white or less colored than the front.
In the case of “fabric dyed” items, the fabric is woven using un-dyed yarn in both warp and weft, to make an off-white / creamish colored cloth. This fabric is then prepared for dyeing.
The dyeing of this fabric is done using colors extracted from various organic waste materials, like marigold petals, eucalyptus leaves, pomegranate rind, onion skins, madder roots, and also the dye extracted from indigo plant.
The dyeing is carried out manually, without using any machinery, and is therefore done in small lots only. In the resulting fabric, the front and back are not very different in color.
The dry skin of onion, Allium cepa, which is thrown away by everyone, all the time, is a rich source of natural dye, which has been used for dyeing textiles since times immemorial. It results in quite interesting and lovely hues and colors.
We collect onion skins from local eateries (dhaba) who, otherwise, throw away this wonderful and precious source of mesmerizing colors in to the dust-bins, and recycle this zero-value waste to create high-value eco-friendly textiles and fashion.
The pigment, which is very easy to extract, gives an unbelievable range of shades.
The dyeing is completely chemical-free, and organic in nature to the core.
A selvedge or selvage is a “self-finished” edge of fabric, keeping it from unraveling and fraying. The term “self-finished” means that the edge does not require additional finishing work, such as hem or bias tape, to prevent fraying.
In woven fabric, selvages are the edges that run parallel to the warp (the longitudinal threads that run the entire length of the fabric), and are created by the weft thread looping back at the end of each row. This looping is possible only if the weaving is done using a “shuttle”, which carries the weft yarns from one end to the other and then returns.
After the introduction of shuttle less weaving machines in 1950s, almost all fabrics – including denim – have a frayed edge, because the weft yarn is cut at the edge of the fabric, and no looping happens.
Our entire collection of eco-friendly denim fabric is made on shuttle handlooms, and therefore comes with a neat and clean, well formed selvedge along both the edges of the fabric.
Click here to know more about selvedge denim.
