Linen is THE best fabric for summer clothes! It breaths, it dries extremely fast, it's light, yet protects from the sun. It's incredibly versatile, too!
C'on! Not only for clothes, what about bed sheets, bed cover, table cloth, shoulder bag, storage basket, every kind of cover...curtains, dishcloths, towels, bathrobe,...
If you want a creased shirt or garment, avoid linen. Terrywool has a better crease after ironing. Use wool or the sheep feel bad. Use cotton or the cotton farmers feel bad. Use Silk or the silk workers feel bad.Linen too.
As someone who has worked with fabrics all her life I can say that linen is by far the best cloth to work with, it takes on so many aspects, rough or silky and is the perfect all year round fabric to wear.
Hi, I am looking to get some work experience. Through your experiences where would be your advise, that i can to get in touch with? Thank you in advance. Thank you in advance.
Except summer. It absorbs your smelly sweat in seconds and holds the smell as well as synthetic fabric. Wear linen and you'll be a smelly, creased mess, faster and longer than cotton.
@@snickerbars4129 No, but it is made in a very similar way. Jute and linen are both made from bast fibers, which are long fibers found in plants. It's the phloem of the plant -- very thin tubes that run the length of the plant, just under the bark, to transport water and nutrients between the roots and the leaves and flowers. Linen is made from the bast fibers of the flax plant, which loves growing in the colder climates of northern Europe, while jute is made from tropical mallow plants. Otherwise, the process is very similar -- the plants are pulled up and then retted over a period of time to liberate the fibers.
Great video! Fun Fact: During WW1, the typical fighter airplane was made of a light wood frame, covered with about 200 square yards of linen. If a bullet passes through cotton canvas, it develops long tears, destroying the airplane, but a bullet through linen only makes a hole, and the airplane is safe, to be patched up at home.
Linen also lasts a lot longer than cotton in aircraft use. Cotton can start to fail in about 10-15 years, while some linen covered aircraft are still good, even 50 years later.
It is really impressive to see the whole process of making linen Fabric. Most of us cannot appreciate the complexities of the sorting, fiber separating for size and consistency and color. Then comes the Weaving looms supplied by huge rolls of thread. The number of years it took to perfect the machines and the process from field harvest and then to the Mills is an engineering masterpiece. Thank you for this informative video and the intelligent and thoughtful comments that are on this channel.
As a handspinner, I find that flax fibre absolutely enchanting (it's on my list of fibres to try spinning). It's also fascinating to see that even with mechanization, it still takes many steps and many skilled hands to get from flax on the field to linen fabric before it even gets made into its final product.
During my first summer in Seoul, which is incredibly hot and humid, I really learned to appreciate linen. My cotton shirts became really uncomfortable with sweat and linen held up to the day much better. I’m really looking to expand my wardrobe into linen now. It’s more expensive than cotton but so much more comfortable, especially when it’s humid.
Your “cotton” shirts must have contained synthetic materials as well as pure cotton is one of the most comfortable to wear in the summer and the most breathable along with linen. Linen however is much more durable and much stronger than cotton so it lasts longer. You have different grades and types of cotton just like you have different ones for linen.
JoAnn fabrics sells linen. You can make your own linen clothing. If you're really desperate, you can grow your own flax, ret it, scutch it, comb it, spin it (drop spindle is cheapest), weave it....
Absolutely loved this film. I am a spinner and weaver in New Zealand also a sheep farmer producing my own yarns from the wool produced by the sheep on my own farm. Have been doing a course thru City and Guilds , London and doing the topic Linen so have been learning about the old flax mills here in NZ producing fibre for Wordl War 2 aeroplanes. Will come back to Ireland again soon ( due 2019 June) and will ceratinly now visit. Wonderful film THANKYOU
I adore the beautiful wool fabrics coming from New Zealand. I love linen too. I'm fascinated that you are a spinner and a weaver and have experience with wool and now with linen. How wonderful.
I bought my first set of washed Belgium linen sheets/duvet set about 12 years ago. They were very expensive. Understanding the process of how linen is made, really does justify the price, and once you sleep on quality linen sheets, there's just no going back. They are the best, and worth the money.
It's amazing, we are wearing dried plants. I really appreciate that. I thought cotton was an incredible fiber. This is great. Thank you for the video, it was very interesting and informative.
I,D rather be wearing dried plants than wearing the plastic clothes that most people seem to wear these days. Heck I,ve even heard of clothes been made from recycled plastic bottles!
Greeting from Ireland. Over 50 years ago, my late father and grandfather used to grow flax for linen. They did everything by hand. Those were such the days.
@@ritaranee4787 Flax is related to the Jute plant. The difference is that unlike Jute, Flax retains its strength moisture and flexibility while Jute just becomes course dry and sheddy
I remember when I was young, feed sacks were called "tow sacks", which made me wonder why when I was old enough to learn that they were made from burlap. I learned by accident that short fiber linen is called "tow", and later learned that before burlap was available in Europe, linen was the only plant fiber available for making fabric. So it turned out that that the term "tow-sack" was an archaic term that was still in use in Southern Appalachia long after it was no longer the correct term to use.
@@pennypiper7382 omg, that's where the term tow-headed comes from! I knew it meant blonde, but not why. I was thinking as I watched the vid that the fibres looked like shiny, blonde hair.
I visited Newport on the West Coast when visiting my ancestral family home. We were farmers from Roscommon, and had to leave due to dire economic conditions after World War 2. My only remaining Aunty, Maggie, she passed some ten years back, thus cutting our physical ties to our homeland. I also visited a birch basket weaving place, in a beautiful emerald valley, so magnificent Ireland. :)
This is much different than how it was done in the early 1900's . My husband's German grandmother explained how they grew and harvested the flax then spun it into yarns. The final step was to bring it into town to be woven into fabric.
I was thirteen years old when the school teacher took the pupils to a small flax factory where we could watch how linen was made with tools that needed human hands to transform the plant into fibers. Linen, cotton and silk are my favorite fibers for clothing, I do not like synthetic fibers but actually the majority of clothes re made with polyester.
Unfortunately cotton is horrifically bad for the environment. Way worse in a lot of ways compared to polyester. Linen and hemp are relatively good though
Lovely video and lovely fabric, “Strong as steel, delicate as silk and with an appearance as varied and attractive as an Irish landscape,” Wallace Clark
My mother refers to the wrinkles in linen, cotton and silk as “honest” wrinkles. I’d rather wear wrinkled linen, cotton or silk than polyester, wrinkled or not. Alas, sometimes it’s hard to avoid polyester.
@@cynthiamorton3583 I have not bought anything polyester since I wore a blouse that burned me up, made me sweat like a sauna. I decided then it should be called "Sauna Fabric".
It's probably because of the long staple length. "Staple length" refers to how long the individual fibers are. For wool, it's somewhere between 4 and 6 inches usually, depending on breed/diet/shearing practices. For cotton, it's shorter, with 2 inches being common. But a linen staple stretches all the way from the head of the plant to its root ball. This makes for a very strong thread when these long fibers are spun together. Fun fact: the longest "staple" fiber is undoubtedly silk. The silkworm cocoon is one single fiber about a kilometer long.
Fascinating! Back in grade school we saw an animated short film of a mole who grew flax, processed it and made himself overalls -- this was by far more high tech and informative. I just never forgot that little mole! Flax and hemp besides wool got my vote hands down. Also looking into nettle fiber 😀
Im researching about linen, because today I bought my first pack of linen textut canvases to work on my art and from watching this I can wait to try to paint on it.
Very fascinating documentary. I sleep in old linen sheets. I wear it too. Alongside cotton, it's one of the most marvellous fabrics. It took pure genius, however, to tame it to this degree. Thank you so much for posting.
My goodness!! This video was wonderful to watch , while showing you all the different process this fabric was made ! Linn is so lovely & of course this video showed you how the Belgium Linen is the Worlds most favourite !!! Than you for this video xx Helen Kirrage xxx
Yesterday I visited the texture museum in Kortrijk/ Belgum. There you can learn that the Belgum people were pioneer in producing and processing linen in eco frienly way. Kortrijk is beautiful and historic city were nice and helpful people live. It is worth visiting many times.
Formerly Linnin was bleached by the sun. The cloth was stretched into tents on frames, giving surnames like Tenterfield. Others from the bleaching, Blanchard and Blabchfield. Ancient trades gave many family names.
Beautiful! SOOOO much more environmentally-friendly than dirty cotton. Linen requires little to no pesticides and much, much less water than conventional cotton. On top of that, it is so durable and had the most beautiful rustic look and feel. I love linen.
I love linen. I have cloths, towels, sheets, pillow cases, etc all made of linen. Nice thing about it is the more you use it and wash it the softer it gets. I now have trouble sleeping on non-linen sheets.
This leaves a large window of time that the soil doesn't have a living root, but it's covered. I wonder how planting a mixed species covercrop to improve the soil health would affect their process. Flax is a highly extractive process that doesn't leave any biomass or ground cover to feed soil microbes or to protect the soil from topsoil erosion, compaction from tillage and solarization, or loss of water infiltration.
This is a great video! We've been trying to revitalize the local fibre economy by growing flax, but the biggest bottleneck is harvesting the flax. I would love a smaller version of this harvesting machine! That's so much better than roping volunteers into pulling by hand. Thanks for this!
I just remembered that I made a seat cover for my worn-out office chair from linen. As that was worn through I made another. It lasts about 3-4 years. Great cloth. I'm sitting on it now.
oh , gee - i remember that. thanks for putting the two together. certainly makes a lot of sense. he’s really amazing, isn’t he? and he does such meticulous work and knows a number of crafts - like making those complicated steam tables. 🎨🖌🖼 🌷🌿🌼🌱🌷
I bought my first linen sheets a year ago and it was instant addiction! I like this film for its topic, music and narration. I have watched it several times.
Excellent video! I believe our American paper money is ¾ cotton and ¼ linen, but I don't know where they get their linen. Best of luck and it appears you have a very professional operation.
I've seen this process done from start to finish the old fashioned way. Boy was that a lot of work. This is a lot easier on people. The one thing I did notice out in the fields that concerned me about the workers there was the lack of breathing mask protection for the machine operators. All that dust can't be good for their lungs.
Losttoanyreason , As a person who has lived on a farm for seventy years, I noticed that also, as the initial process is similar to making hay. The dust is not like abrasive dust from grinding steel that can cause silicosis. I spent lots of days making hay, and being in the mow, stacking the bales is probably a lot dustier than being out in the flax fields. The EU countries seem to look at things like that. As a retired toolmaker I noticed the lack of safety glasses and the presence of loose clothes and jewelry around the rapidly moving equipment and fabric. OUCH!!
Just EXACTLY my thoughts! I would venture that these agricultural workers would wear hats and face covers. The dried flax plants were launched by the thrashing machine in a way that could easily blind someone. Chaff can accumulate in the lungs like coal dust and cause COPD. Maybe they took all of this off for filming? Hope so! Also, we are constantly reminded how foreign exports have resulted in unemployment in "the Heartland". When you see the sophistication of automation that removes millions of tedious, repetitive man hours, you can either view this as a benefit or as a damaging aspect to the communities that faced joblessness after the introduction of labor saving machines. It's possible to hold two opinions..
Wow! That was fascinating. Now if I may share my story. I have a trunk full of handmade linen!! My mother made it in Italy. We brought to Canada in 1968 and it’s been sitting in the trunk ever since. Sheets, towels, dish towels... rolls and stacks of it. And she spent countless hours planting, harvesting, processing, spinning and turning into cloth. ALL by hand. No machinery then. Would tell me stories of how she spun for hours. Her arms ready to fall off. Fingers exhausted. Unbelievable actually. My question is what am I to do with all of this??? I want to honour her and her hard work but don’t know how. Any ideas? Who would be interested in it? Who should I contact? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Use them! Every single day. or donate them to whom you love, knew your mother and appreciate her work. I have a lot of stuff my mother gave and still gives me and she still doen't believe that I use it or keep it, only because she gave it to me.
Maria Bauer maybe you should use and enjoy all those things, because life needs to be lived in the best way possible, and she put all her heart into them. Don’t let them be forgotten in that trunk.
That would be part of the combing process, to align the fibers. They seem to have skipped that part in their explanation. They didn't actually show or explain the spinning process either. Which sort of defeats the purpose of the video. But hey, we got to see lots of big machines!
@@loliciousfakurama2524 Cotton is also harvested by machines, then has to be shipped by container from middle and far east. Sheep for wool produce methane and consume lot's of food vs the amount of useable fibre. Synthetic fibres are made from petroleum products, which has to be won, transported, refined and chemically processed and shipped again before it can be converted into fibres. Linen really is the best fibre from an ecological standpoint, without question.
I wonder if flax fixes nitrogen - or else how do they keep those fields fertile after uprooting the flax? Nope. Maybe they do crop rotation with pulses.
@@loliciousfakurama2524 Yes but linen doesn't require the pesticides and herbicides that conventional cotton does. Cotton farming is highly poisonous to both the environment, water shed and people involved in it. Many get cancer from it too. Cotton requires ridiculous amounts of water to grow. Flax has none of these devastating needs.
After watching this video,l now value an ankle length wide dress I purchased in Capri,Italy. I wear it to work in the garden, after a was and press can wear it to a Gala event or dine on a cruise. Love it.
Very lovely video. I'm hoping to incorporate more natural fabrics to my clothing till I get synthetic fabrics out of my wardrobe. I hope that's doable for someone living in hot climates. Thanks for this video.
Now I like linen more after watching this. I have some flax plants in my garden, and their blue flowers that sway in the wind is really beautiful and graceful.
Peace and blessings. The making of linen out of flax seeds i that in itself is remarkable. But what I find more remarkable is who and how someone came up with the ideas to make the vehicles to carry out the various jobs needed for this process. Awsome video. Thanks.1/4/18
The Jacquard Loom was the first use of "punch cards" to automate an industry. The punch cards were not used with the complex computer electronics we have today, even if you're old enough to remember bills that came on punch cards in the 1960's (such as electrical bills, which were marked "Do not fold, spindle or mutilate"). If you've ever seen a very old "player piano", that was the process used for automating the loom. Once people saw what was possible, the use of automation exploded. Then you ended up with the classic riots of laborers out of work. Sabotage is from the word "sabot", wooden shoes, which were thrown at the owners and others who profited. Up to the time of the J. Loom, people could make a living hand weaving at home full time, or part time when other work slacked off. Weaving was one of the major "cottage industries", then eliminated by automation. Hand weaving was also damned hard work however and after a lifetime often left people crippled. Of course, automation also made fabrics much cheaper to buy and improved quality tremendously which is why automation is so attractive in every human endeavor. Retired librarian, U.S.
It's actually made from the stems, not the seeds, and the stems become more coarse when the plant goes to seed so if they make linen, there will not be any seeds. (They can make fiber out of the stems if harvesting for seed, but it'll be useful only for cordage.)
I once had a nice short-sleeved linen shirt. Linen is not a popular fabric here in the southwestern U.S. However, I really liked that shirt, the fabric was still course but it was very cooling and breathable to wear in the extremely hot Phoenix weather. I always look for linen shirts here but they are hard to find. Very smart looking fabric.
Living in the southern United States with its subtropical summers of high heat and humidity, I find both flax and cotton to be a godsend. Flax is the more expensive option, but it is amazing how much cooler I feel when wearing it - even more so than cotton fabrics.
Such a wonderful and very informative video! Makes me want to be 100% linen now. Please keep producing this remarkable fabric and thank you for sharing your video.
This is something I'll have to watch several times since I'm a slow learner. I've been wondering about something like this and very interested in the flax plant
I was so impressed by all of this!! Really enlightening!! I was admiring the whole process of automation in the factory as well until the last minute when I saw the plastic come and cover the linen roll! And the stacks of countless linen rolled in plastic!! We don't realise how plastic has seeped in every which way of life! Please, if you could get the message sent to stop using plastic and roll it in some other flax made product, that would be great!!
Don't forget the seed is a super food, and the oil from it makes the highest quality paints and also can be dried to a state to make linoleum, and boiled linseed protects wood from weather. It very well may be the single most important plant in existence. I know that can be said about a lot of other plants like barley, but still, emphasis on "single most."
Linen is THE best fabric for summer clothes! It breaths, it dries extremely fast, it's light, yet protects from the sun. It's incredibly versatile, too!
C'on! Not only for clothes, what about bed sheets, bed cover, table cloth, shoulder bag, storage basket, every kind of cover...curtains, dishcloths, towels, bathrobe,...
If you want a creased shirt or garment, avoid linen.
Terrywool has a better crease after ironing.
Use wool or the sheep feel bad.
Use cotton or the cotton farmers feel bad.
Use Silk or the silk workers feel bad.Linen too.
Fact: linen bleaches over time.
And creases within seconds.
@@ZZMJo Making baguette tradition's!
(Yes, it's its a baguette, but made with a different thecnique that takes longer)
As someone who has worked with fabrics all her life I can say that linen is by far the best cloth to work with, it takes on so many aspects, rough or silky and is the perfect all year round fabric to wear.
Hi,
I am looking to get some work experience. Through your experiences where would be your advise, that i can to get in touch with?
Thank you in advance.
Thank you in advance.
Is linen same as jute which is cultivated in India.. .?.
@@snickerbars4129 nope
Except summer. It absorbs your smelly sweat in seconds and holds the smell as well as synthetic fabric. Wear linen and you'll be a smelly, creased mess, faster and longer than cotton.
@@snickerbars4129 No, but it is made in a very similar way. Jute and linen are both made from bast fibers, which are long fibers found in plants. It's the phloem of the plant -- very thin tubes that run the length of the plant, just under the bark, to transport water and nutrients between the roots and the leaves and flowers. Linen is made from the bast fibers of the flax plant, which loves growing in the colder climates of northern Europe, while jute is made from tropical mallow plants. Otherwise, the process is very similar -- the plants are pulled up and then retted over a period of time to liberate the fibers.
I finally understand the expression “flaxen hair”! Thank you
Yes! That's what I was thinking too.😁
I at last understand the name “Aflax Amsterdam”
Yeah, it's racist speak for Aryan ...
I thought of that just before I read your comment. Yes it is shiny and beautiful.
I had the same thought! I had never seen raw flax fibers combed out like that and spun. It's a dead ringer for golden hair!
The people who engineer these machines are impeccable.
Great video! Fun Fact: During WW1, the typical fighter airplane was made of a light wood frame, covered with about 200 square yards of linen. If a bullet passes through cotton canvas, it develops long tears, destroying the airplane, but a bullet through linen only makes a hole, and the airplane is safe, to be patched up at home.
Linen also lasts a lot longer than cotton in aircraft use. Cotton can start to fail in about 10-15 years, while some linen covered aircraft are still good, even 50 years later.
Jack Gamboa our nj
Thanks for sharing!
you gotta bomb the village to save it!
Cool stuff, thanks yall.
Linen is so durable that in the middle ages and up to nearly the present, people itemized household linens, shirts and even underwear in their wills.
Looks like a great material for wigs! Seriously, that part with the wetting of the yarn made it look like Rapunzel's hair!
It is really impressive to see the whole process of making linen Fabric. Most of us cannot appreciate the complexities of the sorting, fiber separating for size and consistency and color. Then comes the Weaving looms supplied by huge rolls of thread. The number of years it took to perfect the machines and the process from field harvest and then to the Mills is an engineering masterpiece. Thank you for this informative video and the intelligent and thoughtful comments that are on this channel.
As a handspinner, I find that flax fibre absolutely enchanting (it's on my list of fibres to try spinning). It's also fascinating to see that even with mechanization, it still takes many steps and many skilled hands to get from flax on the field to linen fabric before it even gets made into its final product.
During my first summer in Seoul, which is incredibly hot and humid, I really learned to appreciate linen. My cotton shirts became really uncomfortable with sweat and linen held up to the day much better. I’m really looking to expand my wardrobe into linen now. It’s more expensive than cotton but so much more comfortable, especially when it’s humid.
Your “cotton” shirts must have contained synthetic materials as well as pure cotton is one of the most comfortable to wear in the summer and the most breathable along with linen. Linen however is much more durable and much stronger than cotton so it lasts longer. You have different grades and types of cotton just like you have different ones for linen.
I have recently seen linen clothing at TJ Max and I find regularly at thrift stores.
JoAnn fabrics sells linen. You can make your own linen clothing. If you're really desperate, you can grow your own flax, ret it, scutch it, comb it, spin it (drop spindle is cheapest), weave it....
Absolutely loved this film. I am a spinner and weaver in New Zealand also a sheep farmer producing my own yarns from the wool produced by the sheep on my own farm. Have been doing a course thru City and Guilds , London and doing the topic Linen so have been learning about the old flax mills here in NZ producing fibre for Wordl War 2 aeroplanes. Will come back to Ireland again soon ( due 2019 June) and will ceratinly now visit. Wonderful film THANKYOU
I adore the beautiful wool fabrics coming from New Zealand. I love linen too. I'm fascinated that you are a spinner and a weaver and have experience with wool and now with linen. How wonderful.
I bought my first set of washed Belgium linen sheets/duvet set about 12 years ago. They were very expensive. Understanding the process of how linen is made, really does justify the price, and once you sleep on quality linen sheets, there's just no going back. They are the best, and worth the money.
It's amazing, we are wearing dried plants. I really appreciate that. I thought cotton was an incredible fiber. This is great. Thank you for the video, it was very interesting and informative.
Im wearing a dried plant shirt for 100 dollars...damn
Dont forget about hemp!
*rotten plants
@@lube6966 the rotting parts go away in the fields, all is left is the dried part that doesn't rot, so nope! Not rotten plants
I,D rather be wearing dried plants than wearing the plastic clothes that most people seem to wear these days. Heck I,ve even heard of clothes been made from recycled plastic bottles!
As a historical sewer and lover of linen, your warehouse is the stuff of my wildest dreams.
Greeting from Ireland. Over 50 years ago, my late father and grandfather used to grow flax for linen. They did everything by hand. Those were such the days.
almost like the jute plant
Here in Cavan, in a corner of our field, there is ‘a flax hole’ where the flax was produced
Same mine. Linen workers from the best of Belfast's linen in Randalstown, Antrim. Protty and Papists together, retting like only Northmen can.
@@ritaranee4787 Flax is related to the Jute plant. The difference is that unlike Jute, Flax retains its strength moisture and flexibility while Jute just becomes course dry and sheddy
It looks like all of us older generational farmers are here.be well.
I remember when I was young, feed sacks were called "tow sacks", which made me wonder why when I was old enough to learn that they were made from burlap. I learned by accident that short fiber linen is called "tow", and later learned that before burlap was available in Europe, linen was the only plant fiber available for making fabric. So it turned out that that the term "tow-sack" was an archaic term that was still in use in Southern Appalachia long after it was no longer the correct term to use.
Tow headed . I understand now.☺️
Ruined 70 likes 😎
@@pennypiper7382 omg, that's where the term tow-headed comes from! I knew it meant blonde, but not why. I was thinking as I watched the vid that the fibres looked like shiny, blonde hair.
An example of Elizabethan English linguistic preservation in the Appalachian Mountains due to isolation of the people groups.
Flaxen hair is also a term I've heard. I'm guessing it comes from the color of the plant fibers.
It looks like golden hair 💜 I wasn't prepared for how beautiful it is.
me and my husband were linen weavers for 30 years and love to warp and weave it t/g
in ireland
Can you share your mail id
I visited Newport on the West Coast when visiting my ancestral family home. We were farmers from Roscommon, and had to leave due to dire economic conditions after World War 2. My only remaining Aunty, Maggie, she passed some ten years back, thus cutting our physical ties to our homeland. I also visited a birch basket weaving place, in a beautiful emerald valley, so magnificent Ireland. :)
I love the feel of linen
@@teestjulian Mee tooo..
Please sir joi me our compny i have complete deploma in textile
This is much different than how it was done in the early 1900's . My husband's German grandmother explained how they grew and harvested the flax then spun it into yarns. The final step was to bring it into town to be woven into fabric.
Wow! Very educational! It's given me a whole new appreciation for the origin of the term, "flaxen-haired maiden."
I worked as a mechanic in a flax spinning mills in Kincardineshire Scotland from 1969to 1997.
Thank you for your service!
I was thirteen years old when the school teacher took the pupils to a small flax factory where we could watch how linen was made with tools that needed human hands to transform the plant into fibers. Linen, cotton and silk are my favorite fibers for clothing, I do not like synthetic fibers but actually the majority of clothes re made with polyester.
Unfortunately cotton is horrifically bad for the environment. Way worse in a lot of ways compared to polyester. Linen and hemp are relatively good though
Neli, True!
Don’t forget wool!
Lovely video and lovely fabric, “Strong as steel, delicate as silk and with an appearance as varied and attractive as an Irish landscape,” Wallace Clark
Have you ever worn linen? :-))) Strong as straw, delicate as straw, but I agree, with an appearance of an Irish landscape. :-)))
Beautiful to sew and to wear. The good stuff does not wrinkle nearly as much as many people believe.
My mother refers to the wrinkles in linen, cotton and silk as “honest” wrinkles. I’d rather wear wrinkled linen, cotton or silk than polyester, wrinkled or not. Alas, sometimes it’s hard to avoid polyester.
@@cynthiamorton3583 I have not bought anything polyester since I wore a blouse that burned me up, made me sweat like a sauna. I decided then it should be called "Sauna Fabric".
Interesting: "Linen is lint free" I noticed the factory air wasn't full of fiber, like in a cotton textile plant.
Linen last for years because it doesn’t lint up and break down
I was just thinking of Lindor lol
It's probably because of the long staple length. "Staple length" refers to how long the individual fibers are. For wool, it's somewhere between 4 and 6 inches usually, depending on breed/diet/shearing practices. For cotton, it's shorter, with 2 inches being common. But a linen staple stretches all the way from the head of the plant to its root ball. This makes for a very strong thread when these long fibers are spun together. Fun fact: the longest "staple" fiber is undoubtedly silk. The silkworm cocoon is one single fiber about a kilometer long.
@@calliarcale it very much is because of the length of the fibers and that are non-branching fibers.
U BLOOMING FLAX PLANT
i would like to see how this process was done by hand hundreds of years ago. it should be enlightening.
There are plenty of videos in You Tube. ua-cam.com/video/TFuj7sXVnIU/v-deo.html
also ua-cam.com/video/Q0SFRIZqkfE/v-deo.html
This video gives you a good idea how linen is made by hand. ua-cam.com/video/TFuj7sXVnIU/v-deo.html
I watched a video from Ireland. About one half hour that covers the hand made process. I can't make a link for you but it should be easy to find.
Me too
In Mexico we've got several dress shops with fabulous garments made of linen. I am very keen on wearing it. Love it! ✨ Great documentary 👏🌟✨
Fascinating! Back in grade school we saw an animated short film of a mole who grew flax, processed it and made himself overalls -- this was by far more high tech and informative. I just never forgot that little mole! Flax and hemp besides wool got my vote hands down. Also looking into nettle fiber 😀
Im researching about linen, because today I bought my first pack of linen textut canvases to work on my art and from watching this I can wait to try to paint on it.
I love wearing a linen shift under a wool gown. It's just a perfect combination.
I can see why long blonde hair was described as "flaxen" in the past.
Luv the Feel and Comfort of Linen...Wowww... Didn't know this came from a plant. and how Carefully and dedication it's given to it.... LUV IT!!
Very fascinating documentary. I sleep in old linen sheets. I wear it too. Alongside cotton, it's one of the most marvellous fabrics. It took pure genius, however, to tame it to this degree. Thank you so much for posting.
How utterly fascinating. This is the first time I've learnt about the entire process of producing a fibre.
I had one linen garment. It was spectacular to wear and comfortably cool. Felt wonderful to wear. Truly different sensation than most fabrics.
Love to watch this process over & over. Truly gossamer fibers at the final combing and for centuries the resilient fiber of choice.
This was an eye-opener. I had no idea it would take so many steps to get to the final product.
It's amazing that all this comes from a little seed, soil and water with sunshine added
My goodness!! This video was wonderful to watch , while showing you all the different process this fabric was made ! Linn is so lovely & of course this video showed you how the Belgium Linen is the Worlds most favourite !!! Than you for this video xx Helen Kirrage xxx
Yesterday I visited the texture museum in Kortrijk/ Belgum. There you can learn that the Belgum people were pioneer in producing and processing linen in eco frienly way. Kortrijk is beautiful and historic city were nice and helpful people live. It is worth visiting many times.
I keep coming back to this, and back again it's so relaxing.
Formerly Linnin was bleached by the sun. The cloth was stretched into tents on frames, giving surnames like Tenterfield. Others from the bleaching, Blanchard and Blabchfield. Ancient trades gave many family names.
damn, shoutout to whoever did the soundtrack, that was actual fire
Beautiful! SOOOO much more environmentally-friendly than dirty cotton. Linen requires little to no pesticides and much, much less water than conventional cotton. On top of that, it is so durable and had the most beautiful rustic look and feel. I love linen.
I love linen. I have cloths, towels, sheets, pillow cases, etc all made of linen. Nice thing about it is the more you use it and wash it the softer it gets. I now have trouble sleeping on non-linen sheets.
Just bought myself some linen pants and damn they are comfy. Especially now during the summer days.
Same here.
This leaves a large window of time that the soil doesn't have a living root, but it's covered. I wonder how planting a mixed species covercrop to improve the soil health would affect their process. Flax is a highly extractive process that doesn't leave any biomass or ground cover to feed soil microbes or to protect the soil from topsoil erosion, compaction from tillage and solarization, or loss of water infiltration.
This is a great video!
We've been trying to revitalize the local fibre economy by growing flax, but the biggest bottleneck is harvesting the flax. I would love a smaller version of this harvesting machine! That's so much better than roping volunteers into pulling by hand.
Thanks for this!
I just remembered that I made a seat cover for my worn-out office chair from linen. As that was worn through I made another. It lasts about 3-4 years. Great cloth. I'm sitting on it now.
Someone noticed I've been watching Baumgartner Restorations, thanks UA-cam! Now I know why Julian uses Belgain Linen
... Belgian* linen*.*
@@einundsiebenziger5488 Brigaine Grinnen.
oh , gee - i remember that. thanks for putting the two together. certainly makes a lot of sense. he’s really amazing, isn’t he? and he does such meticulous work and knows a number of crafts - like making those complicated steam tables. 🎨🖌🖼 🌷🌿🌼🌱🌷
Flax is grown in Ireland too. My late father used to grow flax for linen many years ago. Long time ago.
I bought my first linen sheets a year ago and it was instant addiction! I like this film for its topic, music and narration. I have watched it several times.
Thanks for that, I’ve seen the flax drying in the fields on walks around Caen and wondered what it was. Linen is beautiful to sleep on and to wear.
Can’t believe this is all made from one plant!!
All of this marvelous automation of what was once done by hand. Amazing!
I used to work in Cone Mills, making denim in the world’s largest weaving room. This place is SO much cleaner than our weaving room was!!
Excellent video! I believe our American paper money is ¾ cotton and ¼ linen, but I don't know where they get their linen. Best of luck and it appears you have a very professional operation.
I have an even bigger appreciation for linen now! Wonderful video!!!
I've seen this process done from start to finish the old fashioned way. Boy was that a lot of work. This is a lot easier on people. The one thing I did notice out in the fields that concerned me about the workers there was the lack of breathing mask protection for the machine operators. All that dust can't be good for their lungs.
Losttoanyreason ,
As a person who has lived on a farm for seventy years, I noticed that also, as the initial process is similar to making hay. The dust is not like abrasive dust from grinding steel that can cause silicosis. I spent lots of days making hay, and being in the mow, stacking the bales is probably a lot dustier than being out in the flax fields.
The EU countries seem to look at things like that. As a retired toolmaker I noticed the lack of safety glasses and the presence of loose clothes and jewelry around the rapidly moving equipment and fabric. OUCH!!
That looks like it would be so much fun, work like this is why I went in the military. Combat is a lot easier then chopping cotton or pulling tobacco.
No human were killed in the making of this process.
Just EXACTLY my thoughts! I would venture that these agricultural workers would wear hats and face covers. The dried flax plants were launched by the thrashing machine in a way that could easily blind someone. Chaff can accumulate in the lungs like coal dust and cause COPD. Maybe they took all of this off for filming? Hope so! Also, we are constantly reminded how foreign exports have resulted in unemployment in "the Heartland". When you see the sophistication of automation that removes millions of tedious, repetitive man hours, you can either view this as a benefit or as a damaging aspect to the communities that faced joblessness after the introduction of labor saving machines. It's possible to hold two opinions..
Robert Queberg 0
One of the most informative and educating films I have seen in years
FLAX IS AWESOME! I love how it's made into linen and no waste!
Wow! That was fascinating. Now if I may share my story. I have a trunk full of handmade linen!! My mother made it in Italy. We brought to Canada in 1968 and it’s been sitting in the trunk ever since. Sheets, towels, dish towels... rolls and stacks of it. And she spent countless hours planting, harvesting, processing, spinning and turning into cloth. ALL by hand. No machinery then. Would tell me stories of how she spun for hours. Her arms ready to fall off. Fingers exhausted. Unbelievable actually. My question is what am I to do with all of this??? I want to honour her and her hard work but don’t know how. Any ideas? Who would be interested in it? Who should I contact? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
I think, after all this time, she would just want it to be used somehow by somebody who would benefit from her hard work.
Use them! Every single day. or donate them to whom you love, knew your mother and appreciate her work.
I have a lot of stuff my mother gave and still gives me and she still doen't believe that I use it or keep it, only because
she gave it to me.
Maria Bauer maybe you should use and enjoy all those things, because life needs to be lived in the best way possible, and she put all her heart into them. Don’t let them be forgotten in that trunk.
These sound like museum pieces. Contact every textile museum in the world especially italy
3:27 I would have loved to see how the machines connect the thin pieces of flax together before the spinning process.
trade secret
That would be part of the combing process, to align the fibers. They seem to have skipped that part in their explanation. They didn't actually show or explain the spinning process either. Which sort of defeats the purpose of the video. But hey, we got to see lots of big machines!
👍it raises people's consciousness to use all that hard work wisely, thank you for your hard work💐
It's nice to know about the eco-friendlyness of linen.
Henri de Feraudy Those machines aren't running on pexidust.
@@loliciousfakurama2524 Cotton is also harvested by machines, then has to be shipped by container from middle and far east. Sheep for wool produce methane and consume lot's of food vs the amount of useable fibre. Synthetic fibres are made from petroleum products, which has to be won, transported, refined and chemically processed and shipped again before it can be converted into fibres. Linen really is the best fibre from an ecological standpoint, without question.
BUNK!
I wonder if flax fixes nitrogen - or else how do they keep those fields fertile after uprooting the flax? Nope. Maybe they do crop rotation with pulses.
@@loliciousfakurama2524 Yes but linen doesn't require the pesticides and herbicides that conventional cotton does. Cotton farming is highly poisonous to both the environment, water shed and people involved in it. Many get cancer from it too. Cotton requires ridiculous amounts of water to grow. Flax has none of these devastating needs.
I WANT IT ALL! Linen is my absolute favorite fabric & yarn. Fascinating process too.
*I never knew linen fabric was made out of flax plant*
thanks for this educational video 😀👌
After watching this video,l now value an ankle length wide dress
I purchased in Capri,Italy.
I wear it to work in the garden, after a was and press can wear it to a Gala event or dine on a cruise. Love it.
Very lovely video. I'm hoping to incorporate more natural fabrics to my clothing till I get synthetic fabrics out of my wardrobe. I hope that's doable for someone living in hot climates. Thanks for this video.
Now I like linen more after watching this. I have some flax plants in my garden, and their blue flowers that sway in the wind is really beautiful and graceful.
You beautiful simple organic portal you x
Peace and blessings. The making of linen out of flax seeds i that in itself is remarkable. But what I find more remarkable is who and how someone came up with the ideas to make the vehicles to carry out the various jobs needed for this process. Awsome video. Thanks.1/4/18
9
The Jacquard Loom was the first use of "punch cards" to automate an industry. The punch cards were not used with the complex computer electronics we have today, even if you're old enough to remember bills that came on punch cards in the 1960's (such as electrical bills, which were marked "Do not fold, spindle or mutilate"). If you've ever seen a very old "player piano", that was the process used for automating the loom.
Once people saw what was possible, the use of automation exploded.
Then you ended up with the classic riots of laborers out of work. Sabotage is from the word "sabot", wooden shoes, which were thrown at the owners and others who profited.
Up to the time of the J. Loom, people could make a living hand weaving at home full time, or part time when other work slacked off. Weaving was one of the major "cottage industries", then eliminated by automation. Hand weaving was also damned hard work however and after a lifetime often left people crippled.
Of course, automation also made fabrics much cheaper to buy and improved quality tremendously which is why automation is so attractive in every human endeavor.
Retired librarian, U.S.
@@veralenora4033 Thank you for your work with the library system.
It's actually made from the stems, not the seeds, and the stems become more coarse when the plant goes to seed so if they make linen, there will not be any seeds. (They can make fiber out of the stems if harvesting for seed, but it'll be useful only for cordage.)
I once had a nice short-sleeved linen shirt. Linen is not a popular fabric here in the southwestern U.S. However, I really liked that shirt, the fabric was still course but it was very cooling and breathable to wear in the extremely hot Phoenix weather. I always look for linen shirts here but they are hard to find. Very smart looking fabric.
Hard to imagine all that goes into this. The first batch looks so beautiful.
Not sure about all that goes on in production. But I do know for sure that I will never take my beautiful linen clothing for granted again...
Love linen; I had not idea it came from a plant. Wonderful video.
Amazing!!! Complete video to answer all the queries regarding the quality of the linen cloth. Thanks a ton for the efforts on making this video.
Absolutely love linen! Wish there were more accessible items in America.
How we take for granted the end product. A new appreciation.
Living in the southern United States with its subtropical summers of high heat and humidity, I find both flax and cotton to be a godsend. Flax is the more expensive option, but it is amazing how much cooler I feel when wearing it - even more so than cotton fabrics.
I would love to know how they repair the fabric!
Linen is so durable.
Such a wonderful and very informative video! Makes me want to be 100% linen now. Please keep producing this remarkable fabric and thank you for sharing your video.
This is something I'll have to watch several times since I'm a slow learner. I've been wondering about something like this and very interested in the flax plant
Beautifully illustrated, process excellent for a classroom teaching. Thank you.
a blend of linen and cotton will be great !
This is fantabulous! I didn't get how the short fibres were joined to make those long yarns though. Can somebody explain?
They left that part out.
Wearing linen feels so good on the skin!
Besides the linen ,I also marvel at the design of all of those machines! So many moving parts, so huge!
I just installed some linen weed barrier fabric in my garden. Great stuff. Easy to lay & staple down. Now, I want more linen clothes.
Linen clothing is perfect for summer, i keeps you nice and dry.
YamiKisara texica solutions says is it!
Love Environmental friendly green companies like Libeco and such machine manufacturers.
I was so impressed by all of this!! Really enlightening!! I was admiring the whole process of automation in the factory as well until the last minute when I saw the plastic come and cover the linen roll! And the stacks of countless linen rolled in plastic!! We don't realise how plastic has seeped in every which way of life! Please, if you could get the message sent to stop using plastic and roll it in some other flax made product, that would be great!!
If this doesn't make you slow down the consumption, buy less and buy better, and cherish the cloths you have rather than buying more..
I only wear three fabrics, Silk, Cotton and Linen. It is fascinating to watch the process.
future of fabrics and a great boon to humanity
I’ve been considering linen as the upholstery choice for upcoming furniture purchases. This settles it - I’m getting linen for sure.
Thank you...great presentation, voice and music. I love my linen clothing, towels, fabrics!
This one of the greatest video I have seen on UA-cam . Very informative.
That's just plain old good work. Product and presentation. -Bob Forrester Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
My favourite fabric. A very informative video, thanks for sharing.
I love this so much! So many uses and nothing wasted.
I like the feel of linen garments. One drawback is that it creases very easily.
Don't forget the seed is a super food, and the oil from it makes the highest quality paints and also can be dried to a state to make linoleum, and boiled linseed protects wood from weather.
It very well may be the single most important plant in existence.
I know that can be said about a lot of other plants like barley, but still, emphasis on "single most."