How to Make Linen from Flax

Deborah Colburn, our Historic Trades Interpreter Supervisor, shows us the 18th century method of harvesting Flax into fabric.

[bluepsiongamer]

Finally I understand what it means in fantasy books when people have "flaxen" hair :)

[Ambush]

It's amazing you can get this kind of stuff out of a plant. It looks so much like hair. Thank you for sharing.

[Peggysmusic]

Very interesting! I'm amazed at human ingenuity for figuring out how to make threads, then fabric out of a plant!

[suchbolo]

Short and concise video that explained everything very nicely. Thank you !

[christiangab]

Thank you for sharing how to make linen from flax seeds you are truly awesome and wonderful ^^

[zelmerjoe]

My dad and many other farmers grew flax in the 1950's and 1960's because as a grain it was a lucrative crop in terms of price per bushel. As a side they would sell the 'straw' to a third party which would bale and stack it temporarily in the field to be picked up later.

[Jetty-ge]

Wonderful Historical Video. I didn't want it to end.

[mizzlemoonglade]

Cool video. I'd always wondered how exactly it was made..

[potfur_z_bagna]

I'm reading a chapter about turning plant fibers into cloth from a book about Slavs and I really wanted to see a demonstration, thank you so much Deborah!

[JRain]

I like how she says “George Washington did” this and that… And then at the end we find out who’s actually doing this and that… Hilarious

[gettended]

Thanks! Just harvested some flax I wanna try it!

[Scrungge]

Linen is made using exactly the same tool to make rope from hemp, interesting. Cool video :)

[robertjosephchittinappilly]

Good informative time managed video 👍👍

[CozmikDragyn]

Really want to plant some flax for myself. Remarkable and useful plant. Also its great they made sure to mention that it was washingtons slaves who did all that work. The founding fathers history means nothing if we downplay their flaws and forget who REALLY built this nation.

[Ilimar]

What a pain! But there were only limited options for inexpensive material.

[ronibralo]

Tak sa to veru robilo, ešte kdesi doma nejaké náradie by sa našlo 👍

[thebudsofmay]

george washington did this, george washington did that... you tell me he processed flax with his own hands one time lol

[bernice_anders]

Image how wealthy the offspring of the enslaved skilled workers would be today if those enslaved ppl got to make money off of their skill instead of the unskilled human traffickers

[robmarshallofficial]

Very interesting to watch, I noticed you didn’t show the soaking process which was done in the U.K. is that part of the process which was done in America or did then not do that?

[muktanram]

Really i like to work this linen faiber fabric where from this youtube video know day i am making cotton fabric here my country