Belgian linen is used in a lot of the luxury bedding out there. This is because the best flax in the world is grown in Western Europe. Well-suited soil, experienced flax growers with a concern for quality, and a favorable climate all contribute to the excellence of belgian linen. These people perform all of the steps of harvesting flax with unmatched gusto, from preparing the soil down to the actual extraction of the fibers. They use traditional methods that have been handed down from father to son and master to apprentice, yet they also incorporate scientific and industrial research as well. These flax farmers also have a healthy respect for our environment. All of this loving and care is essential in linen used in luxury bedding.

A stalk of flax consists of two parts; the bark, and the woody core. The bark is basically the flax fibers that are bound to the core. Retting is the process of decomposing the adhesive materials, which are called pectins, by using bacteria, so that the fibers are thereby seperated from the wood core. The bacteria used are only active at high temperatures with sufficient moisture. If left uninterrupted during the retting period, the flax would rot and become completely useless in making luxury bedding. Water retting has disappeared over time as it was considered to be far too labor intensive, and was having effects on the surrounding environment. Dew-retting is the current retting process, and is natural and has no impact on the environment, providing an enviromentally safe method of producing luxury bedding.

Spinning flax is the process where the fibers are spun into yarn. This is the stage in which the flax begins to take on a more familiar structure. Using the latest technology and European raw materials, the belgians are able to produce many high quality yarns, suitable for luxury bedding as well as many other applications. They use varying techniques to untangle, spread out, draft, and spin these fibers in order to produce textile yarn, depending much on the type of yarn that is to be produced. Two traditional methods of spinning pure flax yarn are scutched flax spinning and tow spinning. Scutched spinning uses the long fibers, and tow spinning uses the shorter fibers that are produced by hackling.

The next step, weaving, is exactly as you would think. Generally the threads are spun together, though sometimes they may be woven with other fibers in order to produce mixtures, such as linen and cotton. A fabric comes from the interlacing of two series of yarn; the warp and the weft yarn.

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