What is the process to turn flax into linen?

Linen fabric is made from the cellulose fibers that grow inside of the stalks of the flax plant, or Linum usitatissimum, one of the oldest cultivated plants in human history. Flax is an annual plant, ... Flax is ready to be harvested for its fibers when the stem begins to turn yellow and the seeds turn brown. read more

I relied very heavily on wikipedia[1] to write this. This process is specific to (my limited understanding of) hand-made good-quality linen. Processes for lower quality, machine-made or non-flax "linen" will vary. Longer flax fibers provide better quality linen, so: 1. Hand-harvest the flax to optimize the length of the flax fiber. read more

Irish linen is the best known and most valuable, though most of the flax used for manufacturing is grown elsewhere and imported into the country for processing. The climate in Ireland is quite favorable for flax processing, and the slow Irish bleaching methods inflict minimal damage on the fibers. read more

European flax wheel used to spin flax into linen thread. (From the collects of Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village, Dearborn, Michigan.) This is a European "flax wheel" used to spin flax into linen thread within the home. read more