Where is linen from

The Phoenicians, who had their merchant fleet, brought flax growing and the making of linen into Ireland. Belfast became in time the most famous linen producing center in history. The majority of the world's linen was produced there during the Victorian era.

Some religions even made rules that involved linen or they just mention them in religious concept. The Jewish faith restricts wearing of mixture of linen and wool. Linen is also mentioned in the Bible in Proverbs Bible also mentions that angels wear linen. Quality is very important in linen production.

The longest possible fibers are got when the flax is either hand-harvested by pulling up the entire plant or when stalks are cut very close to the root. Seeds are then removed from the plant and fibers are loosened from the stalk.

Dew retting is the preferred method in areas where water sources are limited but that enjoy warm daytime temperatures and heavy nighttime dews. Flax stalks are spread out evenly across a grassy field, where the combination of air, sun and dew causes fermentation, which dissolves much of the stem within weeks. Dew-retted fibers are typically of poorer quality and more darkly pigmented than natural water-retted fibers. Tank retting takes place in large vats that are typically made of cement, as the acidic waste products of the bacteria corrodes metal.

Stalks are first leached, or soaked, for hours to removedirt and pigment from the bundles. This water is then changed, and the bundles allowed to soak for more days to complete the retting process. Flax can also be retted chemically, which speeds up the process. It is, however, more harmful to both the environment and the fibers themselves, and is therefore not preferred.

The retted stalks, called straw, are dried mechanically or in natural air, and are then usually stored for anywhere from a few weeks to months in order to allow curing to take place. After curing, the woody stalks that still cling to the bast fibers are further broken, usually by passing the brittle straw through rollers that crush the wood into smaller pieces that can be more easily removed, a process called scutching.

Scutching involves scraping a small wooden knife down the length of the fibers as they hang vertically, pulling the broken woody bits away from the fiber.

This is a labor-intensive process. One person scutching can produce only about 15 pounds of flax fibers per day; less if the fibers are coarse, hard, or have been poorly retted. The small pieces of leftover bark that remain after scutching are called shive , and are sometimes used as a filler in thermoplastic composites. The separated bast fibers are next heckled , or combed through a bed of nails that splits and polishes the fibers, and removes the shorter tow fibers from the mix.

These tow fibers can then be spun into a coarse yarn from which low-quality linen products are made. The longer fibers sometimes as long as three feet!

The at long last separated flax fibers, called stricks , are traditionally spun by hand using a distaff. A distaff is simply a long vertical pole that attaches to a spinning wheel from which the fibers are hung. This helps keep the fibers organized and prevents them from turning into a tangled mess. Spinning involves twisting together the drawn out strands of fiber to form yarns, then winding the yarn onto a bobbin, or spool.

The yarn is often slightly dampened during spinning, which helps prevent fly-away strands from escaping the twist and creates an especially-smooth yarn check out this really cool photojournal of a woman hand-spinning flax. Flax is always spun very finely--especially the longest of the fibers--resulting in a thin yarn. In order to create a thicker yarn, multiple skeins of this thin yarn can be spun together, a process called plying. One ply: thin and sufficient. Two or more ply: preferred!

The resulting yarn usually 3-ply or thereabouts is typically finished by boiling for several hours in soapy water, which gives it a nice shine.

Linen yarn is generally woven into sheets--a process wherein multiple threads are interlaced both horizontally and vertically on a loom. Occasionally, linen yarn is also knit , or formed into fabric by creating consecutive rows of loops that intertwine with one another. By virtue of these loops, knit fabrics have a degree of stretch inherent in them, and because linen yarn has no elasticity, it is quite difficult to knit and so more frequently woven.

Because the process is still so laborious, even mechanized flax production actually requires a great deal more handwork than other mass industrially-produced textiles like cotton and rayon. Check out this awesome timelapse video, called The Art and Science Linen, to see what mechanized flax production looks like today. So that's how mechanized production turns flax into linen, but where in the world is it done the best and why?

The quality of the linen fabric is greatly dependent upon the retting process. For example, as you already learned, over-retting produces a mushy, weak fiber, and under-retting makes the bits of shive difficult to remove such that the fibers can be damaged during scutching; factors entirely under the control of the retter. Read about it here , and the best linens tend to originate from the enclaves within Europe that have long traditions of flax cultivation:.

The map below shows the major centers of linen production in Europe. The best quality linen is retted in slow-moving natural water sources such as streams and rivers. In fact, the highest quality linen in the world is retted in Belgium in the River Lys , though to this day chemists have been unable to determine what makes the waters so conducive to the retting process.

Harvested flax is sent to Belgium from France, Holland, and even as far away as South America to be retted in the magical waters of the River Lys, which is typically crowded for miles with weighted down flax bundles. Irish linen is the best known and most valuable, though most of the flax used for manufacturing is grown elsewhere and imported into the country for processing.

The climate in Ireland is quite favorable for flax processing, and the slow Irish bleaching methods inflict minimal damage on the fibers. European linens are the next finest, with the French producing the whitest and most delicate of textiles.

Self-sufficiency was a source of great pride for the American colonists and textile production was one way of showing it. Leading up to the Revolutionary War, the boycott of British goods was in full swing. Women, such as the Daughters of Liberty, routinely held spinning bees in town squares to show off their self-sufficiency and spinning excellence.

This was an especially harsh smack in the face to the British textile industry, which dominated all of Europe at the time. Homespun linen production continued through the early s but waned as textile production became more industrialized. The invention of the cotton gin in made cotton production more economical than linen production.

Cotton production in the United States doubled each decade from because the cotton gin meant that fewer slaves were needed to process cotton thus they could be sent to the fields to plant and harvest it instead. Mechanization in the spinning and weaving of cotton further fueled the cotton industry so that it quickly overtook linen as a cheap, everyday working fabric.

For example, spinning mills for cotton in Lowell, MA were in operation in the late s whereas mechanization of linen spinning did not come about until the s. Even with the mechanization of flax processing, spinning, and weaving finally starting in the s and s, flax would never catch up to cotton production. By the mids, most small farms in the United States no longer grew or processed their own flax and there was plenty of commercially available cloth.

Home textile production saw a small revival during the American Civil War but died down again when the textile mills went back to producing civilian goods and supply routes were reopened to the South. Linen was still used for specific-use fabrics such as buckram, bedding, and canvas as well as work clothing and underclothes.

Production became more specialized focusing on fine linens for tablecloths, drapery, and napkins as seen with the famous Irish linen. Linen was also used for finer clothing as it was perfect for starched uniforms and crisp cuffs or nice summer clothes.

Towards the late 19th century, one of the trademarks of men in the upper classes was a warm-weather suit made of light colored linen. Women also had summer or warm weather linen suits, dresses, and riding habits, especially in the Southern United States and warmer climates such as the Caribbean and Mediterranean.

A woman in a linen chemise or shift underwear from the Bath of the Nymphs by Francesco Hayez, Today linen is being rediscovered as an everyday fabric as well as a luxury fabric.

In recent years, linen has made its way back into high fashion. Linen is going strong for the spring season as major designers like Michael Kors, Donna Karan, and Lanvin, all have linen pieces in stores. Independent designers have also embraced linen. The company Flax specializes in linen clothing for women and puts out several collections each year in a range of fabric weights.

Vivid Linen is another modern clothing company that uses only linen. Apart from soft and timeless clothes, every purchase helps a Nepalese girl out to get through education.

Linen has certainly come a long way from being wrapped on mummies to everyday underwear to fine tablecloths and summer suits and now back to every day wear again. Other posts by Deb Fuller. Very informative, but no mention of linen as a ground for embroidery — especially for the various counted thread techniques. Nice article — Just a note about the photo of the spinner at a great wheel.

She is spinning wool, not flax, and her costume and wheel suggest she is from Wales. Another name for the great, or walking wheel is the wool wheel, because it is engineered for spinning wool. One can spin flax on a walking wheel, but a spinning wheel designed for flax works better. Cotton was known and used throughout Europe, though not to the extent that linen was until the invention of the cotton gin.

Thank you for the history, the pictures and article. I find it interesting to read more about this fabric that i love and work with. I love the fact that these garments can be passed down for generations,. Loved reading about the history of linen.

Fascinating article. Guess I never thought that a cotton boll is a seed or how seeds and reeds transport moisture differently. I love how linen breathes. I wear unlined linen pants comfortably down to 15 degrees fahrenheit, below which I add long underwear to stay warm. The article indicated linen was cultivated in Egypt, so I guess they never knew the warmth it could hold in cold weather.

Keep the information coming fabrics-store! Love, love, love linen! The linen fabrics are beautiful. I will be doing a lot of travelling and want to make various clothing and bedding. Do you have a retail outlet as well? Thank you for the article on linen.

Hi Lisa, we are based in LA, but we sell everything online. You can get samples of fabrics- if you would like to get a feel for what they are like. Great article! I love to sew with linen, but find it hard to find good, unfussy, modern patterns that make the most of this beautiful fabric.