Linen is not cotton - Pure Linen Flax

Linen fabric is one of the earliest fibers to be made and it comes from the flax plant, which grows all over the world in wet regions like Southern Latvia, Lithuiana and Belarus (Bielorussia). Flax is a tall, reed-like plant, with long fibers which make it easy to spin into thread. You cut the plant stalks, and then leave them to soak in a tub of water or a stream until the hard outside stem rots away and leaves the long, soft fibers underneath. This process is called retting the flax.

Then you take the fibers and spin them on a spindle into linen thread. Linen can be spun coarse, or it can be spun very very fine, depending on the skill of the spinner and what you want to use it for.

The Egyptians made sails out of coarse linen, for example, but used very fine linen for expensive tunics.

It is hard to dye linen, so mostly people wore it white or a tan color, the way it is naturally. It is not as warm as wool, but it is much softer and more comfortable on the skin (after you wear it a while; at first it is stiff and scratchy).

People were spinning and weaving linen by about 5000 BC, even before wool. In the first millennium BC, the Egyptians mostly wore linen, while Greeks and West Asians and Germans mostly wore wool. By the Roman period, however, many people wore linen tunics for comfort with wool robes over them for warmth, and in the Middle Ages in Europe this continued to be common, so that "linen" got to mean something like "underwear". The word "lingerie" is related to linen.

Also, as it is used on tables and for bed covernings, a common name "linen" is now used for both. This can be confusing for the unaware buyer. Read the labels and product information carefully. It should say 100% Linen or 100% Linen Flax materials.

Healthy Linen products manufactured from Studio Linen Fantasies in Riga, Latvia, is made from 100% Linen Flax materials.

Reference: Carr, Karen. "(History of Linen)" Kidipede - History for Kids. 2007. February 17, 2008.

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