Linen for Stitching

Do I even need to repeat that I am no expert? OK . . one more time . . I am not a linen expert. I have purchased enough linen in the past 16 months that I feel like I’ve learned at least what I like and what I don’t like.

Let me start by saying there is nothing wrong with Aida, there is nothing wrong with Evenweave, there is nothing wrong with Lugana. In fact, I think about the third piece I stitched was stitched on Lugana. I actually thought I was using linen and I loved it. I told myself . . I want more of this linen so when I went back to the envelope to see which linen it was, I was so surprised to see that it was 32 count Lugana. Lugana is readily available in 25, 28 and 32 count. Many stitchers love stitching one over one on 25 count Lugana which makes it the same as 50 count linen (but easier).

While I do not want to be a linen snob, there are brands of linen that I like better than others. I will only buy linen that was dyed using a Zwiegart base. I find it to be much more even with less slubs and less thick, then thin fibers.

Linen is hard to find these days. Yes, you CAN find linen but finding exactly what you want may not be easy. We have to take what we can find sometimes and make it work. When buying linen, it’s mostly listed in fat quarters, which is about 18″ x 27″. A fat half would be about 27″ x 36″ and a full yard would be about 36″ x 55″.

There are linens that are hand dyed, and there are linens that are production dyed by the large companies like Zwiegart. A yard of Zwiegart linen will run $65 and up, where a yard of hand dyed may start at $120 and go up. I love some of the Zwiegart production dyed linens but I also love the hand dyed linens.

Dyers are at the mercy of the linen they receive. I’ve heard a couple of dyers say recently that they were not thrilled with the linen they received but they have to work with what they get. I believe that some dyers pay very careful attention to defects or uneven threads and, though it’s a waste for them, they do try to cut those out and not include them in their regular lines.

I will also say that there was a particular dyer whose colors I loved . . I was always looking for their linens. The entire country seemed to be out of their linen, then it began trickling in. I bought some here and some there and anywhere I could find it. Then it started to arrive and it wasn’t comparable to what I had before. The newest linen, and this was probably back in September or October that I got it, seems thick and rough – almost like I feel like I’m stitching on denim. That’s the price we pay when we mail order and don’t get to see the linen first. I have a fat quarter that I am going to soak and see if maybe there’s soap or something left in it, and hope that after soaking it and drying it, I’ll like it more. I will report back on that little experiment.

I grabbed a few pieces of linen that were near my chair and tried to get good photos so hopefully, you can see that there are few slubs, few really thin threads.

This is Ticonderoga by Needle & Flax. The photo is much more gold then the fabric really is. I adore Needle & Thread’s linen. Her colors are great and I’ve never seen any problems with her linen. This girl is a one man show and she has quite a following so, get in line and wait! 🙂 It usually takes about two months from when I place an order with her until it arrives. I mostly only place orders when she releases new colors. She does have a flosstube channel and I find her to be funny.

While you can see some thicker threads in this photo, none of them would cause an issue while stitching. This is a Zwiegart base.

This is Rustic Drab by XJu Designs. It’s another Zwiegart base. I love her linens. If I could only have linen from one dyer, it would be this one.

This is a Zwiegart Lugana. See the orange line running through the selvage? That means it’s a Zwiegart based fabric. You can also see how even the holes are in Lugana. It is 52% cotton/48% viscose whereas linen is 100% linen.

My advice is this – if you’ve tried linen and haven’t been happy with it, please try a different piece and at least look at the Zwiegart based linens and compare them to others and see if you can see a difference.