Textile Manufacturing: "From Field and Pasture for Personal Wear". @museum.de

M: There were no department stores or fashion chains, and certainly no boutiques. From woollen socks to lace collars, everything was made by hand!

F: It's hard to imagine nowadays how much time and effort it took for earlier generations to make their clothing. The range of yarns and fabrics was fairly limited: people wore cool linen in summer, and sheep's wool in winter. And both were processed at home and by hand, from raw material to finished item of clothing.

M: That was why a lot of people bred sheep and grew flax in Thuringia's Saale valley, and everyone who lived here was familiar with the processing methods, complicated as they were.

F: Perhaps you'd like to know how a flax plant is transformed into a fine linen shirt?

M: It's quite simple. Flax is sown early in the year and harvested barely four months later. The plant is pulled up by the root, stripped of its seed pods, and left in the field to dry. Alternatively, it can be soaked in water for a few days, or left to lie in the morning dew and then dried.

F: Then the fibres have to be separated from the woody stalk, and that involves several processes using various tools:

First, the stems are broken into short pieces by placing bundles of them across a flax brake and operating the lever. The woody parts of the stalk are detached from the fibres and discarded.

Then the bundle of fibres is processed with a scutching knife. Next, it's drawn through large combs called hackles, and finally given a good brushing. At each stage, the fibres become finer and finer and end up wonderfully silky and soft.

M: The fibres are then spun on a wheel – a time-consuming occupation that kept the women and the old men busy all winter.

F: The spun yarn was finally used to dress a loom, where it was woven into linen cloth, which the woman of the house turned into shirts, aprons, jackets or even bed linen.

M: Coarser linen fibres became saddle blankets or flour sacks. In the 20th century, linen fabrics were almost completely replaced by imported cotton, but for several decades now, we've been seeing a return to growing and processing this traditional crop. Linen is cool to the touch, so you don't perspire as much. And it is very durable. In the old days, farmers would swear by their long-sleeved linen shirts during the cereal harvest, because their arms were much better protected from the sharp-edged stalks.