Some traditional printed fabrics have a border along one side. This is usually in the same colour but in a smaller scale, geometric or other complementary design. In some cases one or two new colours are added into the border design [only]. Borders do limit the available width of fabric but in all respects are a bit of a design bonus.
Borders need to be cut off along the whole piece before the cuts are made, so that you have a good, long length of border that can be re-applied as you so choose. It’s usually best to re-stitch the border back on even if to the same place so that wherever the border is npw used it looks the same. Use borders for edging or binding sides,hems and tops, for making frills , flat borders, or boxed cushion gussets, for curtains, loose covers, pelmets or cushions.
Most early hand block prints had a border on one or both sides, a custom that persists in India, where the borders create the skirt and pallu hemlines for the sari.