Ric rac is the little zigzag trim that turns a plain hem into something that looks finished on purpose. It sews down flat in one pass, reads as decoration from a distance, and costs a fraction of what embroidery or lace would on the same garment — which is why it never really goes out of use in apparel, home textiles and craft kits.
We've run narrow fabrics in Jaipur since 2004, with twisting, braiding, dyeing and tipping all in-house. Our ric rac is braided rather than woven: the zigzag comes from the braid itself, with wave pitch and width set by carrier count and take-up speed. Trial orders start at 100 meters per color, and we ship worldwide.
How Is Our Ric Rac Trim Made, and From What?
Ric rac gets its zigzag from construction, not from printing or cutting. On our narrow braiding machines, yarn carriers cross in a repeating pattern that pushes the braid alternately left and right, producing the wave along the length of the trim. Two settings control the look: carrier count determines how wide the trim is and how dense the body feels, and take-up speed determines the wave pitch — slower take-up gives a tighter, more compressed zigzag, faster take-up opens the wave out.
Once braided, the trim is heat-set so the wave holds its shape, then cut to length and put up on cards, reels or bulk rolls depending on what you need for your packing line.
Materials: cotton for a matte, traditional look that takes a stitch well; polyester where you want strength, low shrinkage and colorfastness through repeated washing; and viscose where you want a softer surface with more sheen. All three are dyed in our own dye house, so we match shades to your swatch and hold them across reorders.
One honest limitation worth stating up front: this is a braided ric rac. Widths are bounded by what our narrow braiders can carry, so we cover the standard small-to-medium trim range and not the wide, woven, jacquard-patterned tapes that come off a loom. If your spec calls for a printed motif or a woven jacquard edge, that's a different product and a different machine.
How Does Wholesale Buying Work From Our Factory?
You tell us the material, width, wave pitch and colors; we quote within one working day. There's no middleman markup because there's no middleman — braiding, dyeing and finishing all happen under one roof in Jaipur.
- MOQ of 100 meters per color, so you can trial four or five shades in a single shipment before scaling
- Custom shades dyed in-house against your physical swatch or color reference
- Put-up to suit your line: retail cards, reels, or continuous bulk rolls for cut-and-repack
- Repeat orders run against your saved spec, so width, wave and shade stay consistent
- Export packing — polybagged, carton-packed for sea or air freight
A typical first order: a notions distributor takes 100 meters each of six colors in one width, sews them into their own samples to check how flat the trim lies under a straight stitch, then comes back with a production order across the full color card. That trial-first route is exactly what the low MOQ exists for.
What Do Businesses Actually Use Ric Rac Trim For?
Ric rac is a decorative trim that also happens to be cheap to apply, which is why it shows up across several unrelated industries:
- Childrenswear and womenswear — hems, cuffs, yokes and pocket edges, where a single row of zigzag reads as a design detail without adding a production step
- Home textiles — curtain edges, cushion covers, table linen, aprons and tea towels, often in a contrast color against a plain ground
- Craft and haberdashery brands — cut and repacked onto branded cards for notions walls and online craft stores
- Quilting and patchwork — inserted into seams so only the outer points of the wave show, giving a scalloped edge without a scallop cut
- Costume, dance and folk dress — layered rows of ric rac are a traditional decoration on skirts and bodices in several costume traditions
In nearly all of these the trim is visible on the finished product, so shade consistency between batches matters more than it would for a hidden component. That's the practical case for buying from the factory that runs its own dye house rather than from a stockist reselling whatever lot they were shipped.
Why Buy Ric Rac Factory-Direct From India?
Most decorative trim reaching a US shelf has passed through two or three trading layers, each adding margin without adding any control over the product. Buying direct reverses that: you set width, wave and shade, we braid and dye to it, and what arrives is what we made.
Jaipur sits inside one of the world's largest textile supply chains, which is why we can dye small custom lots that bigger mills won't schedule. Sea freight to the US runs 30-40 days and air courier 4-7 days; because ric rac is light and compact, air freight is often practical for first orders and sample runs in a way it isn't for heavier cordage.
