{"id":11693,"date":"2022-03-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-07T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=11693"},"modified":"2022-03-23T15:50:01","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23T14:50:01","slug":"the-linen-renaissance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/2022\/03\/08\/the-linen-renaissance\/","title":{"rendered":"The linen renaissance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The linen renaissance<\/h2>\n\n

A field in urban Blackburn could be the start of a fashion revolution, according to Patrick Grant of BBC series The Great British Sewing Bee.<\/em> He wants to revive Britain\u2019s once-great linen industry \u2013 and help save the planet<\/p>\n\n

Words: Margaret Bartlett<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Justine Aldersey-Williams and Patrick Grant among the harvested flax in the Blackburn field in August last year<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

D<\/span>elicate violet-blue blooms nod and sway in the breeze atop slender emerald-green stalks of flax on a hazy June day. The gentle rumble and whirr of wooden spinning wheels floats on the air as a small group sits beside the field turning flax fibres into linen yarn, ready to be woven into homegrown cloth.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

This is no bucolic rural scene from the 18th century, but 2021 in the heart of Blackburn, and the beginning of a potentially revolutionary fashion project. In a bid to reduce the huge carbon footprint of fashion, the Homegrown\/Homespun project aims to regenerate linen production in Britain \u2013 an industry that has been dormant since the 1950s.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
The pretty flax blooms appear in June <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

SEEDS OF CHANGE<\/span><\/h4>\n\n

Work started in April last year, when an enthusiastic team of around 30 volunteers gathered to clear years\u2019 worth of fly-tipped rubbish from a small disused field beside the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. They tilled the soil and sowed seeds of flax and woad \u2013a plant used for making blue dye. In June, when the green shoots were reaching skywards, a group gathered on the edge of the field to learn how to spin flax fibres, then how to create indigo dye from the woad.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Among the workers in the field was a familiar face: The Great British Sewing Bee<\/em>judge and fashion designer Patrick Grant. A driving force behind Homegrown\/Homespun, Patrick is also the founder of Community Clothing \u2013a social enterprise creating affordable, sustainable clothing manufactured in the UK (communityclothing.co.uk<\/a>). The first threads of the project were spun during conversations between Patrick and Justine Aldersey-Williams, a botanical textile dyer. Friends since meeting on Liverpool\u2019s fashion scene in the 1990s, the pair share a passion for repairing the link between local agriculture and the clothes we wear, both striving to create a climate positive fabric industry in the UK, from seed to sewing. In early 2020, Justine also started the north-west England branch of Fibreshed, a regional community of textile growers, makers and educators who work sustainably.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe clothing industry really has this huge potential to remedy the climate crisis,\u201d says Justine. \u201cIf you start growing, rather than extracting fibres using fossil fuels, you can be a massive force for good. Patrick and I had a conversation where I suggested a collaboration and we came up with a plan to grow fibre and dye,\u201d she adds. They soon stitched together Homegrown\/Homespun \u2013a collaboration between Patrick\u2019s Community Clothing, North-West England Fibreshed and the Super Slow Way, a cultural development programme working in a 20-mile corridor around the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Super Slow Way found a suitable site with the support of Blackburn Council, then leafleted the neighbourhood to ask for volunteers.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

\n
\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
volunteers worked to lay the flax in the field for retting<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"
flax is pulled up by the roots rather than cut<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

WORKING TOGETHER<\/span><\/h4>\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

In the midst of the Covid pandemic, Justine says being outdoors with others, working towards a shared goal, created a hugely positive vibe and attracted committed helpers. And help was needed, as every step was done by hand; making enough yarn for just one length of cloth involved 70 hours of hand-spinning. \u201cThe story of what we\u2019re doing really captured everyone\u2019s hearts and minds, because it does feel very hopeful,\u201d says Justine. \u201cIt really feels like we\u2019ve got a chance to turn things around.\u201d Patrick adds:<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\u201cWe probably had in excess of 100 volunteers over the course of sowing, growing, pulling, processing etc. They loved it, I loved it, Justine loved it.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

In mid-August, the volunteers gathered to pull up the flax and lay it in the field for retting, the first process in preparing the fibres for spinning (see box opposite). The crop was then placed in upright bundles, called stooks, to dry. From only five kilos of seed, 96 stooks were harvested. Some were sent to Flaxland \u2013 artisan linenmakers in Stroud, Gloucestershire \u2013 for further processing: breaking, scutching and hackling.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

It was an emotional moment when Justine finally held the woad-dyed linen cloth in her hands, ready to go on display at last October\u2019s British Textile Biennial \u2013a festival of UK fabric and clothing production coordinated by the Super Slow Way. By the time of the next biennial in 2023, Patrick hopes Community Clothing will be able to sell completed garments: jeans made from Homegrown\/Homespun linen.<\/p>\n\n