Assembly Line

How linen is made

Linen comes from flax stems that are left to rot on purpose so the fibers inside come loose.

stations
6
things upstream
2
raw sources
2
step from the ground
1

The short version

Linen is cloth made from the inner bast fibers of the flax plant. Farmers pull or cut the stalks near the root, strip the seeds, then ret them, letting bacteria rot the glue that binds the fibers. The dried stalks are crushed and combed, leaving long fibers that are spun into yarn and woven.

  1. Pull the flax

    To get the longest fibers, flax is pulled up whole or cut very close to the root. The stalks are dried, and a threshing step called rippling removes the seeds.

    Goes in
    Flax

  2. Rot the stalks loose

    In retting, bacteria decompose the pectin that glues the fibers to the woody core. It happens in tanks or pools, or straight in the field. Chemical retting is faster but harsher on the fibers and the environment.

    Goes in
    Water

  3. Crush the woody core

    In scutching, the retted stalks are crushed between metal rollers so the woody part breaks away from the fibers. Seeds, shives and tow are set aside for other uses.

  4. Comb out the short fibers

    Heckling combs pull the short fibers away and leave only the long, soft flax fibers, which range from about 25 to 150 mm.

  5. Spin into yarn

    The long fibers are drawn and twisted into yarn. Fine linen yarns for handkerchiefs are much lighter per yard than coarse ones.

  6. Weave or knit

    The yarn is woven or knitted into cloth, which can then be bleached, dyed, printed on or finished.

End of the lineLinen

Worth repeating

  • Dyed flax fibers found in a cave in the Caucasus suggest that humans may have used woven linen over 30,000 years ago.
  • United States currency paper is 25 percent linen and 75 percent cotton.
  • At one time Russia produced about 80 percent of the world's fiber flax crop.

Back to the ground

Follow every input upstream and linen starts as these 2 raw sources.

FlaxWater

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Where it comes from

  1. China$732.3 million of woven linen fabric exported
  2. Italy$173.0 million exported
  3. Belgium$68.9 million exported
  4. United Kingdom$51.7 million exported

2018, value of woven linen fabric exports, from United Nations trade statistics.

Keep walking

Silk tie 7 stations · 10 raw sources Wool blanket 5 stations · 9 raw sources Hook-and-loop fastener 5 stations · 5 raw sources Candle 7 stations · 18 raw sources Wool sweater 6 stations · 9 raw sources Silk 6 stations · 4 raw sources

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Sources

Cite this page: "How linen is made." Assembly Line, 2026-11-03. https://assemblyline.org/make/linen

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