How is Linen Fabric made?

In this article, we will talk about how to make linen fabrics from their cultivation to the final production which yields a soft linen material that you wear today, such as  your shirt, dress, and your favorite summer clothes. 

Brown flax seeds are grown in fertile soil and are usually planted in the spring, as the flax seed needs a mild and sunny atmosphere to grow in this type of environment. Flax plants take about a hundred days to fully grow to linen flax and reach a height of 80 cm to 120 cm during this period. You might realize that European and Asian countries are one of the largest suppliers and producers of flax linen.

The flax harvest starts by pulling the flax plant from its roots when it reaches maturity. The plant and the roots begin to dry in the sun for a few days before they are stored in linen stores. Afterwards, the flax plants are placed in water to break the bonds between the fibers and to allow the stem part of the plant to separate from the fibers. 

This process takes a few weeks depending on the plant's condition. During this period, the stems of the plant are separated from the fibers of the flax. Moreover, then the plant is placed in a hydraulic press to compress the fibers into bales of fiber for factory production.

During production, the linen fibers are placed in a fiber combing device to separate the long fibers from the short fibers with an iron combing device to strain the flax fibers for more than seven times as required, the fibers are stretched into soft ropes similar to horse hair. After this process, the long fibers are spun into threads using a spinning machine that wraps the threads around large reels to store the linen threads. 

During this process the weak threads are cut from the reel to maintain the overall quality of the linen string before production and in accordance to the type of thread layout needed from the customer.

The manufacturer can combine short linen fibers with other flax fibers to make various products such as bags, bed covers, curtains, and upholstery that is typically made of heavy linen fabric. Long fibers are used to manufacture clothing due to its softness and durability. The last step in the production of soft linen is knitting the threads together based on the fabric design.  

This depends on the desired thread count, fabric weight, WEFT/WARP, width, and the textile design. The factory uses huge industrial machines that interline & connect the linen fibers together to produce the linen fabric we see today in fabric shops.

You will see that some linen materials are soft and others are rough upon touching them. This is caused by the way the fabric is processed after manufacturing, the most prominent processing & treatment methods are: bleaching, dyeing, and finishing. Linen fabrics are bleached to improve their appearance and feel. The fabric is dyed in different colors according to the desired color. 

The fabrics are treated with natural or chemical substances to improve their texture and softness, making them resistant to wrinkles over time. Finally, the linen fabric is inspected by an expert QA/QC technician to check for any technical errors that may have occurred during manufacturing based on quality control procedures prior to shipping the linen fabrics.