I adore my linen dresses. The lightweight, smooth, breathable fabric keeps me cool on hot days. I wash them by hand, hang them, and then when they are dry I spray them with water from a spray bottle to soften the wrinkles. I never have to worry about one day finding them falling apart in my closest, unlike my synthetic clothing.
Linen textiles are made from the fiber of the beautiful flax plant, known by its three-veined leaves and delicate five-petaled pale- to bright-blue flowers. Fiber from the flax plant is as well suited for weaving into the tough fabrics from which sails, bedspreads, and tablecloths are made as it is for weaving the more delicate fabrics sewn into clothing. Flax fibers are also used in making some of the finest papers available.
Read my essay Weaving Cloth and Culture from Flax: Connecting Continents and Generations on the Fibershed website to learn more about flax’s ancient history across time and distances, the role it has played in my own heritage, and how the art of flax cultivation is being revived today in California.
What a fantastic history of humanity’s long relationship with this abundant and versatile plant. I feel nostalgic reading this piece.
As a farmer I love to hear about Sandy and Durl’s farm. They have reconnected with a lifestyle fashioned around flax poduction and processing that is inspriring.
Kat’s little teaser about linen sent me online where I learned that this plant is also the source of the flaxseed in my granola and the linseed oil I’ve long used (as did my grandfather) in woodworking. Thank you, Kat.