It’s a busy few weeks here with Memorial Weekend, a bread festival, and Father’s Day happening one week after another. Sales are brisk and people seem upbeat. Construction projects are happening downtown on almost every corner fixing up Raleigh. It is hopeful to see for 2025. Finished the last of the summer herb garden planting so taking a break to focus on new festivals.
Don’t have a good handle on which new events will take off, but positive upward momentum. Especially the new health food stores opening in downtown. Natural fabrics also seem to be having a moment in the sun, especially linen. This isn’t the first time they’ve been a trend, but the popularity of The Invisible Rainbow by Andrew Firstenberg or My Cold Water Cure by Sebastian Kneipp seem to be having a moment for linen sheets. Linen sheets have been a natural cure for thousands of years and since pound for pound, they seem to produce the same amount in an acre around 830 to 900 lbs raw, it’s hard to miss the cash grab big agriculture will make.
Not all of us can go out and bid on the spot price on flax though or plant a few fields worth so the obvious application is probably going to be dying and embroidery work for most museums, education, and tourist venues. Especially thread. A lot of great research has come out of the costume theater and film industry. For anyone not aware, linen does BEAUTIFUL photography and AI rendering. It also takes natural dyes very well in color baths which you see at Viking Color Gardens (see this awesome video for ideas if you have a historical venue) in large metal pots which can fix lots of different tourist pieces from people walking by wanting to learn about traditional sewing fiber crafts. Heat and sun both work to set fabrics. Marigolds, one of the most popular flowers in the south, can be used for beautiful golds. They are the historical star of NPR Victory Gardens back in the day so you can still find them in most farmer’s markets today. There are MANY MANY books on dying in various regions near you, but here’s a lovely Youtube video from Australia if you are interested in a British textile artist. Italy and France are also famous for their traditional dyes. You should look into plants near you.
Color gardens are just plants that dye fabrics well. You plant them around the edge of a fancy house or vegetable garden to keep away bugs. Beautiful plants turn into group dying sessions in the fall. Indigo can be harvested in July or August here in NC for blue. The rest vary, but it’s worth looking into for small craft stores, etc. since linen thread takes dye well and it can stretch a limited amount to sell natural dyed linen threads for make and take projects under $20 with blank linen canvas. It’s a good Girl Scout project or a monthly sewing group Stitch’n’Bitch Project. From a teaching perspective, if you’re planning a full-day workshop, do dying in the morning and then break for lunch with everything hung out to dry. The thread should be done by the time you get back and you can then make custom pillows or home decor in the afternoon to take home. Something small and funny. As always, having taught a number of classes, be kind to yourself and make up a few pre-dyed kits in advance in case life happens. Wool is the other suggestion, but it’s really up to your creativity.
Anyone else trying to figure out good linen projects while it’s in? This trend seems tailor made for Ren Faires to do a great job at.