How To Differentiate Handwoven George Material From The Machine Copy Version

A woman came to us last year with George fabric she'd bought for a traditional wedding, paid a price that reflected what she believed was genuine handwoven cloth. It wasn't until we started cutting it that the truth showed itself. The pattern was printed flat onto a plain woven base rather than woven into the structure of the fabric itself, and the moment we cut into it, the edges frayed in a way real George never does. She'd paid a handwoven price for a machine printed copy, and she had no way of knowing until it was already too late to return it.

This happens more than people realise, and it isn't always the seller's fault either. A well made printed imitation can be genuinely difficult to spot without knowing exactly what to look for, and even some sellers are reselling stock they were told was handwoven without verifying it themselves. What follows is how we check George before we agree to cut it, and the differences that hold up even under market lighting and time pressure.

Understand what you're actually paying for

Genuine handwoven George is made on a traditional loom, where the pattern is created by the weaving process itself, threads of different colours interlocking to form the design as the cloth is made, rather than a pattern applied afterward onto a plain fabric. This is a slow, skilled, labour intensive process, and it's the reason authentic handwoven George carries a real premium. A machine copy starts from a plain, machine woven base fabric and has the pattern printed or screened onto the surface afterward, which is faster, cheaper, and far easier to produce in bulk.

Neither is dishonest to sell, provided it's sold as what it is. The problem is when a printed copy is priced and presented as handwoven, and the buyer has no way to check.

Look closely at the pattern itself

This is the fastest test, and it takes seconds once you know what you're looking at.

• Check the back of the fabric. On genuine handwoven George, the pattern is part of the weave, so it appears on both sides of the fabric, sometimes slightly softer on the reverse but clearly present and following the same structure. On a printed copy, the back is usually plain, faded, or shows only a ghost of the pattern, since the design sits on the surface rather than running through the cloth.
• Look at the edges of each colour in the pattern. On woven George, colour changes happen where one thread ends and another begins, so the edges of each colour block have a slightly textured, woven quality when you look closely. On a printed copy, colour edges are flat and smooth, sometimes with a faint blur or bleed where the print wasn't perfectly sharp.
• Check for perfect repetition. Machine printing tends to produce a pattern that repeats with mechanical precision, identical every single time across the length of fabric. Genuine handwoven George often has small, natural irregularities from one repeat to the next, since it was made by hand rather than stamped by a machine. Oddly, in George, those small imperfections are a good sign, not a flaw.

Test the feel and weight of the cloth

Handwoven George has a distinct hand feel that's difficult to fake convincingly.

• Feel the thickness and weight. Real George tends to be heavier and more substantial than a machine copy, since the weaving process itself, using thicker threads, produces a denser cloth. A printed imitation is often made from a lighter base fabric that feels thinner and less substantial when you scrunch a section in your hand.
• Listen to the fabric. This sounds unusual, but genuine George has a particular crisp, almost rustling sound when you scrunch it or rub two layers together, a result of the tighter, denser weave. A printed copy on a lighter base often sounds softer and quieter, without that same crispness.
• Check for texture you can feel with your eyes closed. Run your fingers across the surface. Woven patterns have a slight raised or textured quality where the threads change, something you can genuinely feel under your fingertips. A printed pattern sits flat against the surface no matter how detailed it looks, since ink doesn't add texture the way woven thread does.

Check how the edges behave when cut or pulled

This is the test that revealed the truth about the fabric our client had already paid for, and it's worth doing before you commit to buying, not after.

• Ask to see a cut edge, or gently pull a loose thread if one is available. Genuine handwoven George frays in a controlled, even way along the grain of the fabric, since the weave holds itself together in a predictable structure. A printed copy on a cheaper base often frays unevenly, sometimes fraying excessively or unraveling in a way that suggests the base fabric wasn't woven as tightly to begin with.
• Gently stretch a small section on the bias, diagonally across the weave. Handwoven George has very limited stretch and returns to shape, since the weave is tight and the threads are substantial. A thinner printed base sometimes stretches more than expected and doesn't recover its shape as cleanly.

Ask about origin, but verify it yourself too

Genuine George is traditionally associated with specific weaving traditions and origins, and asking a seller where their George comes from is a reasonable first question. That said, don't rely on the answer alone. Sellers repeat what they were told by their own suppliers, and that information isn't always accurate by the time it reaches a market stall. Treat the origin story as one piece of information, then confirm it against the physical checks above rather than trusting it on its own.

Price still matters, just not on its own

Genuine handwoven George should cost noticeably more than a printed copy, and if a price feels unusually low for what's being sold as handwoven, that's worth paying closer attention to before you buy, not proof on its own either way. We've seen printed copies sold at a genuinely handwoven price to unsuspecting buyers, and we've also seen honestly priced printed George sold clearly as what it is, at a fair price for a good quality imitation. Price is a signal worth noticing, never a substitute for checking the fabric itself.

Why it matters beyond the price you paid

Beyond the money, the two fabrics behave differently once they're sewn, and this affects the finished garment.

• Genuine handwoven George holds a crisp, structured shape well, which is part of why it's traditionally used for wrapper sets and traditional wear that needs to stand with some body rather than hang soft.
• A printed copy on a lighter base often doesn't hold that same structure, and a wrapper made from it can look noticeably softer and less substantial once it's tied and worn, even if the pattern looked identical on the roll.
• If yardage was calculated assuming the weight and behaviour of genuine George, as covered in our fabric yardage guide, a lighter printed substitute can also drape differently than expected, changing how much fabric is actually needed for the same design.

None of this means a printed George imitation is a bad choice, some clients genuinely prefer the lighter weight or a lower price point for an occasion that doesn't call for the real thing. The problem is only ever paying a handwoven price without getting handwoven fabric.

Bring it to us before you cut

If you've bought George and you're not fully sure what you have, bring it in before any cutting starts. We can tell within a couple of minutes of handling it which one you're working with, and that changes how we'd approach the design, the lining, and the amount of fabric needed to get the result you have in mind. Send us a photo on WhatsApp if you can't get to the shop straightaway, or bring the fabric by and we'll go through it with you on the table.