Our Red Hat Society Ladies Red Hat Gift Items
are 2.5 X 2¾ inches around. These Unique Christmas Ornaments consist of a red hat with red glitter on the top and two rhinestones decorating the front. The Red Hat Society Ladies Ornaments also have a purple ribbon flower with small pearls in the center. The Miscellaneous Holiday Ornaments hang from a 3 inch loop of red stain ribbon. Select to see a complete listing of our Christmas Decorations Ideas.
Uses for Linen.
- Bowstrings
- Carpets and Carpet Backing
- Suits
- Draperies
- Dresses
- Artists canvases
- Tablecloths
- Fine shirts, ties and collars
- Towels
- Thread
- Lace
- Handkerchiefs
- Thread for stitching shoes
- Upholstering fabrics
Information on Linen.
When we look at pictures of great flax fields, it is hard to realize that these lovely blue flowered stalks may one day be changed into a shining white dinner cloth or a heavy boat sail. From earliest times, men have know how to make flax into fine linen.
The Egyptians grew fields of flax along the Nile River 4,000 years ago and made it into fine cloth. Egyptian and Hebrew priests wore linen cloth at religious ceremonies. Egyptian mummies were wrapped in linen before they were placed in tombs. Linen was the cloth worn by the rich when Greek civilization was at its height. The Romans made paper from linen. They gave books, which were written on linen paper the name libri lintei. During the Middle Ages, most of the peoples of Europe wore linen clothing. The people of England had known how to weave linen as early as the year 400.
The first settlers of the American colonies brought flax seed with them from Europe. They grew small fields of flax for their own use and made the flax straw into linen cloth by hand. Most linen is imported. The main reason is that the best linen yarn must be made by hand and the cost of this labor in the United States is high. Linen yarn can be made and woven into cloth more cheaply in such countries as Belgium and the Netherlands. The Soviet Union grows more flax than any other country of the world. It produces over a billion tons of flax fiber each year. France, Belgium and the Netherlands also produce much flax.
Factories of the United States manufacture about $7,000,000 worth of linen cloth each year. But the fines, softest lines are handmade and are imported from Belgium, Germany, France and Ireland. These handmade lines cost much more than machine made linen. Check out our selection of Unusual Gifts For Mom.
How Flax is Harvested.
About the end of August, flax turns a light brown color. This is the time for the farmer to harvest the plant if it is to be made into linen. If flax is allowed to become too ripe, the linen fibers lose their softness and shine. Flax growers sometimes poll the plants by hand so as not to break the ends of the fibers. Then the stalks are tied into bundles. The bundles are laid in the sun until they are thoroughly dry. Then they are passed through a coarse comb, which pulls the seeds from the stalks. This combing is called rippling.
Next comes a process called rotting or retting. The flax plants are kept wet or moist to loosen the coarse, woody bark, which covers the delicate linen fibers. There are many different methods of retting and the color ad quality of the linen fibers depend on this process. The Russians ret flax by exposing it to dew for a period of three to four weeks. This produces a strong, gray linen fiber. The Irish ret flax in pools of still water. This method may cause too much retting, which leaves linen fibers brittle and weak and bluish gray in color. The usual Belgian method of retting is to leave the flax in a stream of running water for five to fifteen days. This produces strong linen of pale yellow color. Flax is often retted in tanks of warm water in the United States, Belgium and Northern Ireland. After retting, flax is dried and run through grooved rollers, which break the woody bark into small pieces called shives. The shives are separated from the fibers by whirling wooden paddles in a scotching machine.
The final step in the preparation of linen fibers is a combing process called hackling. The long fibers, or line, are separated from the short, or two fibers. The long fibers are combed out so that they lie straight ad side by side. For fine linen, hackling must be done repeatedly by hand, using finer and finer combs.
