Made by Hand: of Flax and Hats
Do you have anything in your closet made of linen? It’s breathable, light and very comfortable. Today linen’s properties may be appreciated more for the sake of fashion and comfort. However in the past, linen’s durability made it a crucially important textile, and a practical choice for certain daily-use items.
While wool shrinks and silk wilts in hot-water laundering, linen’s long fibers stand up surprisingly well to vigorous scrubbing. For this reason, it was a textile of choice for undergarments like chemises and workshirts as well as utility textiles such as table and bed linens and kitchen towels in the 18th and 19th centuries. Linen was also used for more refined garments, and is the most common backing for embroideries. Deerfielders could have imported linen from Europe, but they also produced it locally. Linen is made from the fibers inside the stalk of the flax plant, a common crop in the area. Museum Educator Faith Deering grew some in our Teaching Garden this summer which is pictured drying here.
If you are looking at this image and wondering how on earth people produced soft white cloth from this plant, you are not alone. Gina Gerhard, flaxdresser, will demonstrate and talk about parts of this fascinating process on Saturday, September 24.
Here is a conversation I recently had with Gina:
What do you enjoy most about being a flaxdresser?
I most enjoy the learning and practicing of a craft that is no longer being done in this way, and keeping this skill alive. The growing of the flax has been a real challenge, and I like finding and using the old flax processing tools, and how they help inform you about how to do the work.
Tell me how you developed your interest in doing this.
I taught myself to spin wool when I was around 18 and have been spinning various fibers ever since. But I have always loved collecting antiques and became interested in the old spinning wheels and learning how they worked. Wool was fairly easy to do, so I delved a bit deeper and got interested in processing and spinning flax into linen. There was quite a bit to learn since there aren’t a lot of people out there doing it, so it was a challenge.
Can you describe what you have done/how long you have worked to develop these specialized skills?
It took me several years to collect all the processing tools I needed and to find a suitable spinning wheel in good working order. I also had to grow the supply of flax straw and learn how to use the tools to turn the raw material into spinnable fiber. It then took me a few years to master the spinning of flax since it is much more difficult than wool to spin. I can now spin a fairly respectable linen thread which I can use for weaving and sewing thread. It’s now been about ten years since I’ve been practicing the craft.
Hatmaker Bill Wigham who will also demonstrate on Saturday, September 24 describes how he first became interested in his craft:
“My interest in history began when my father took me to Gettysburg for the lighting of Eternal Light Peace Memorial in 1938. We saw veterans from the Civil War; I got a chance to talk to them. My father who was quite knowledgeable about the Civil War took me all over the battlefield and told me what happened in each place. It was a wonderful time. I was with my father. It was an experience that has shaped my regard for history.
When the bicentennial came along I had already become involved with muzzle-loading firearms that I used for hunting when Dr. C. Keith Wilbur from Northampton, MA decided to put together a traditional unit to take part in the celebration of the bicentennial of the American Revolution. In those days we were trying to put together something that people would recognize as a Revolutionary War uniform and we had to do a lot of research. We had to get things made, or we had to make them ourselves.
One of the things that came up was hats – we couldn’t get hats anywhere. My father was a spiffy dresser and he always had hats around, so I always felt close to the hats too. I started experimenting – that’s all it was at the point in 1960. I had to learn everything from scratch - until I ran into a man called Khaled Nader who was from Lebanon. He ran Nader the Hatter, a shop in Springfield, MA. I didn’t have very much information about making hats until I talked with him. We traded knowledge - I knew a lot about woodworking so I could make my own hat blocks on a lathe. I did that for him, and he taught me all about making hats.“
By the late 1960s Wigham got a job at the New Windsor Cantonment which is now a State Historic Site in Vails Gate, New York. The site was a winter camp during for 18th century troops. General George Washington himself spent the last winter and spring of the Revolutionary War at this site. Staff developed some special events involving traditional units to recognize the bicentennial, and had to make a number of hats for that purpose. Bill’s experience grew and grew with each opportunity to practice.
With 50 years of hatmaking research and experience, Bill Wigham says “I am still learning. “ He is a teacher as well and has a few recent students. “I am trying to pass on what it took 40 years to put together so that the information will still be around.” Bill will be demonstrating his craft on Saturday, September 24 at Historic Deerfield.
Flaxdressing and Hatmaking featured at Historic Deerfield – Saturday, September 24, 10:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.