Sewing the Seeds is a collaborative community project, based in Frome, run by a group of six local textile practitioners and enthusiasts. We came together through Edventure Frome’s ‘Everyone Needs Pockets’ textile network and found that we shared an interest in regenerative and locally produced fibres. We were all particularly inspired by a recent Flaxland UK workshop, where we gained an insight into the beguiling craft of flax processing. Our small group wanted to cascade that learning to the wider community and test the viability of growing small plots of backyard flax for fibre and fashion.
The project’s aims were to educate and nurture conversations around the connections between fibre, food and soil through sowing, harvesting, processing - and finally weaving a union cloth from a blend of locally grown linen and nettle fibres.
In addition to our motivation to explore local flax production, we wanted our project to raise awareness of textile pollution and over consumption. We felt that in order to cherish a garment, you not only need to understand where it comes from and how it has been created, but also for it to be imbued with memories and positive emotions. This project enabled us to open a dialogue in the community around the impact of our changing climate and how this is inextricably connected to reducing textile waste, both in our small town and across the planet. We believe that growing our own textiles within our own bioregions will be fundamental in the future of fashion.
We therefore wanted to grow cloth from flax seed and foraged nettle to help shift our awareness from blithe consumption towards the joy and satisfaction of learning, growing, making and cherishing what we wear, alongside the community around us. We hoped that participating in the project would help to reduce the impulse to purchase ever more petroleum-based clothing.
Frome is an ancient wool town with a long history of wool production and trade, but we felt that growing flax for linen and foraging for nettles would be more accessible to more people than keeping sheep in the back garden! Flax is well suited to our climate and it was grown extensively in South West England. We found mention of flax historically grown around Innox (a residential area in Frome), several linen drapers, plus one linen weaver amid the plethora of wool workers. Today, Frome Museum holds a few flax processing tools and some artefacts made with local linen.
After many 'growers meetups' helping each other through the different stages of growing, various workshops - supported by the South West England Fibreshed - home retting (I retted some of the crop in a water butt and the rest left to dew rett in the grass) we have now reached the stage of spinning! This is a challenge and definitely an obstacle in the process as very few of us have the skillset for hand spinning. Luckily, one of our team is a fantastic spinner and has been teaching us and now we wait for the muscle memory to grow - she insists that two minutes a day of spinning should get us on the right path.
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