How To Make Sail Cloth From Hemp & Flax

Harvest hemp and flax "bast" plants, where the fiber is collected from the inner bark of the plant stem, either by hand or machine. Pull directly from the ground, retaining the whole plant. Collect into bundles and tie with twine on both ends for easier handling.

Transport the plant bundles to either a prepared steaming platform, or lay them in a pond or stream. An alternate method of this "retting" process is to place the bundles on a dewy field and allow Mother Nature to soften the outer stems of the plants. Once the plant bundles turn white, separating the stems from the woody cores, the plants are set aside to dry.

Break the outer surface of the dried plants with a blunt instrument, then separate the inner fibers by further beating the broken stems. (Another method is to strip the outer stem from the fiber while it is still wet and laying the fibers out to dry.) Collect the dried inner fibers and comb them with a metal comb into thin strands in preparation for spinning.

Attach the strands to a spindle or spinning wheel so the fibers can be twisted or spun into yarn. The yarn may be further processed in boiling caustic soda water to soften the fibers, then soaked in plain water for several days to remove the chemical build-up. If this is done, dry the yarn again in preparation for weaving. If a rough sail cloth is required, eliminate this process.

Attach parallel lengths of both flax and hemp yarn to a loom in a repeating pattern of your choice the width of the loom. Weave perpendicular, alternately above and below the established "warp" strands, with "weft" strands of yarn. Repeat this weaving once one side of the loom is reached to return to the beginning side of the loom. Tamp the yarn into place with the loom tamping implement and continuously repeat until the yarn is woven into a length of sail cloth. Tie off the ends and cut the cloth to your selected pattern.