Fibre · Linum usitatissimum, retted and scutched
Linen
Flax fibre, stronger wet than dry, which is why it survives the washing that destroys cotton and improves for fifteen years.
Why it gets better
Flax fibre is a bundle of cellulose held together by pectin. Every wash removes a little of the pectin, which lets the bundle separate into finer filaments, which is what softening actually is. Cotton has no equivalent mechanism: it starts at its softest and goes thin from there. This is the physical reason behind the observation that linen improves and cotton declines, and it is why the first two years of a linen sheet are the worst it will ever be.
The same structure explains the strength. Flax fibres are long, up to 90 centimetres, and align along the yarn, so a linen thread has far fewer weak points than a cotton one. Wet, the cellulose swells and the bundles grip one another more tightly, which is the unusual property of gaining strength in water and the reason linen survives a lifetime of hot washing.
The creasing question
Linen creases because the fibre is stiff and has low elastic recovery. Nothing can be done about this beyond a resin finish, which stops the creasing and also stops the softening and shortens the life. Creased linen is what linen looks like, and the market has spent a century alternating between selling that as elegance and selling the treatment that removes it.
What does help: taking it out of the machine immediately, shaking it out hard, and hanging or spreading it damp. A linen sheet put straight on the bed damp dries flat enough that nobody irons it.
Blends, and when they make sense
Linen and cotton blends crease less and soften faster, and they also give up the long term durability that was the reason to buy linen. Linen and viscose drapes better and is substantially weaker. A blend is a reasonable buy for a garment and a poor one for bedding, where the whole argument is the fifteen year horizon.
Weight, in grams per square metre
The single most useful number on any linen product, and frequently absent.
How to check it
- Ask for the weight in grams per square metre. A seller who does not know is reselling.
- Hold it to the light. Linen shows a natural irregularity in the yarn, called slubs. Perfectly uniform yarn suggests a blend or a heavy treatment.
- Rub it between your fingers. New linen should feel cool, dry and slightly crisp, not soft. Suspiciously soft new linen has been treated and will feel worse in six months.
- Check the selvedge and the hem depth. A deep, doubled hem on bedding signals a mill expecting the sheet to last.
Care
- Wash at 40 degrees. Sixty only when there is a reason, because heat shortens the life of every fibre.
- Never use fabric softener. It coats the fibre and destroys the absorbency that is the point of linen.
- Line dry, or tumble on low and remove slightly damp.
- Rotate two sets rather than washing one repeatedly. Fibre recovers between uses.
- Store dry and loosely folded. Tight permanent folds can weaken the fibre along the crease over years.