For the love of French homespun linen, part 3

After shopping trips to France during which we were able to acquire as much homespun linen as possible, we often wondered with the grain sacks why there was such variation in the stripe or stripes down the center of the bag. During one particular trip to a small flea market in a quickstop drive through the South of France, one dealer who spoke no English told my uncle's wife that the color and pattern of the stripes referred to a specific place or weaver, sort of an abstract coat of arms if you will that signaled exactly where and who the particular sack(s) came from belonged to.

For the love of French homespun linen, part 2

Long time since last posting, getting myself accustomed to the commitment it will take to create a successful blog. I am apologizing to myself at this point (ha ha!), seeing as how i have no followers yet. That will change...

Pictured above is a pair of pillows I custom made for a client. This particular heavier weight woven flax/hemp was made into grain and feed sacks, used primarily in the 19th century. This was an ideal fabric, because the heavy weave allowed whatever was inside to breathe, and the fibers so incredibly strong that they could withstand being filled with grains or livestock feed. We got many of these sacks over the years to sell in our shop, and because of the looms they were woven on, were no longer than approximately 45 inches in length and about 19 inches wide, with one side and the bottom of the sacks sewn together extremely well. If a customer had in mind to recover cushions with this incredibly durable fabric, I would ofter encourage them to use the grain sacks above all other fabrics we carried. I recovered dining chairs, made seat cushions for many different types of chairs, in addition to the many pillows I made with this.