April 2024 bandana by Aly Moyer of Hatch Artwork

A selvage's main purpose is to prevent unraveling or fraying, which makes a fabric stable and secure. Some fabrics come with frayed edges for aesthetic purposes. A selvage's self-finished edge makes sure that this fraying won't come undone and affect or damage the rest of your fabric.

 

Find a more detailed history of the bandana here.  One of our favorite passages from this history...

 

As a minimum, you can expect bandanas to be 100% cotton... Some of the best makers offer selvedge bandanas, which have a barely noticeable selvedge line on one or two edges. The edges that are not selvedge will be folded and stitched.

 

One of the few places you can check the quality of the work is the corners. Has it been stitched together hastily, or is it clean and precise work? If you’re paying for well-made, it’s fair to expect nothing short of perfection. 

 

Hand feel is an excellent guide here. If you like the look of the bandana, pick it up and rub the material between your fingers. Is it soft and supple? That’s a sure sign that the maker has gone out of their way to source top-grade cotton for their bandana. If it feels crisp or papery, mosey on to the next one.

 

Some well-made bandanas are deeply saturated in colour and could block out the sun on a cloudless day. Others are given a gentler dye treatment and are almost transparent. One isn’t better than the other, it’s just a matter of the maker’s purpose and your preference.

 

Finally, a well-made bandana, when unfolded and laid flat, should communicate something to you. It might tell a story, or it might evoke some far-away time and place or something nearer and dearer. 

 

Great makers produce bandanas with this kind of intention. The bandana is their canvas, and, like all artists, they want their story to be understood and their work to be appreciated.