Join us over the Summer Solstice: June 20, 21, 22 all events are free!
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Come makers, artists, textile enthusiasts, agriculturalists, small farmers, local foodies, slow-fashionistas! Together we are weaving relationships with materials, makers, growers, and thinkers to encourage a richer modern human connection with textiles.
Midwest Linen Revival presents Field to Frock events in and around the Madison area to build community for the emerging flax fiber movement. Attend one event or all of them! We promise you'll leave with a greater appreciation for the connections between soil health and human health, traditional skills with future resilience, and individual crafting with community wellbeing. And learn some things about our connection past, present, and future with the beautiful flax plant.
A Hands-on Behind-the-Scenes tour featuring historic pieces of linen registration required
Two Start Times: 2PM and 3PM, each tour will last approx. 60 minutes
Max capacity: 20 people per tour
Location: UW-Madison Center for Design & Material Culture
1300 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706
Parking Info here: https://cdmc.wisc.edu/about/location/
Registration required: 2:00 tour OR 3:00 tour
Did you know that one of the world’s largest textile collections is on the UW-Madison campus?
The Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection, housed in the Center for Design and Material Culture at the School of Human Ecology at UW Madison, includes over 14,000 textile artifacts spanning 16 centuries and 108 countries. Started by a fiber enthusiast and beloved Wisconsin professor Helen Louise Allen, the remarkable research collection will be open for special Field to Frock tours on Friday, June 20th. This is a unique opportunity to peek inside the storage space and learn the inside story about a few linen pieces that will represent a range of cultures, time periods, and functions with cultural historian and textile specialist Sophie Pitman. Pre-registration recommended as space is limited.
A pioneer in her field, Professor Allen approached textile objects as cultural records through which human nature and history could be better understood. For this linen-focused, hands-on opportunity, Dr. Pitman will share stories from some of highlighted objects from the collection and invite relevant, timely conversation about what we can learn about how linen has been made, worn, valued, and cared for around the world, throughout history.
B Fun with Color and Dye in the Garden
Times: Dawn til Dusk
Location: UW-Madison Allen Centennial Gardens
620 Babcock Drive, Madison, WI 53706
Parking Info: There are two-hour timed parking stalls (mobile pay “meters” that do not accept coins) on Babcock Drive, as well as a parking ramp (Lot 36) on Observatory Drive.
Come visit the garden! Learn from Allen Centennial Gardens’s educator Ryan Dostal about dying fabric with plants. Stop by anytime for a simple dying demonstration showcasing the colors created from plants you can grow in your own gardens and containers.
* Note there are no restrooms; dogs must be on leashes
C Flax Field Day and Hand processing Demonstration
Time: 10-12, stop by anytime
Presenters: Scott Johnson from the Low Tech Institute and Leslie Schoeder from Midwest Linen Revival
Location: Troy Gardens
502 Troy Dr, Madison, WI 53704
Parking Info: Street parking available
Come hang out in a flax field! See the plants in bloom and learn from experts about planting, harvesting, retting, and processing to prepare long bast fibers for spinning. Some DIY equipment will be discussed and demonstrated.
D Hands-on: Mending for Everyone
Time: 1-3PM
Presenter: Carolyn Lipke, Fibershed Heartland Volunteer, and Kathryn Prince Fibershed Heartland Board Member
Location: Aubergine
1226 Williamson St, Madison, WI 53703
Parking Info: Street parking available
Make a statement with your style, no sewing experience necessary! This hands-on, free event is
kid-friendly and open to everyone. We will offer the instruction, tools, and materials for remaking
older clothes into something fresh and fun. Bring your own clothing or try out some techniques
on our provided fabric. Instructors and fiber artists Kathryn Prince and Carolyn Lipke will share what they love about hand sewing and teach participants the skills to be part of the solution while dressing to impress
E Spinning Flax to Fiber
Time: 3-5PM
Presenters: Bee Hahn from Babe’s Fiber Garden and Emily Nie from Madison’s Weaver’s Guild
Location: Aubergine
1226 Williamson St, Madison, WI 53703
Parking Info: Street parking available
Come see how to spin gold!
F Coffee Hour with Flax and The Flax Ma'am
Time: 10-12, stop by anytime
Presenters: Leslie Schroeder of Midwest Linen Revival
Location: Anderson County Park
parking by the big white house
Come hang out in a flax field, drink coffee from Cargo Coffee, and shoot the breeze with the Flax Ma’am our regional expert on the history and future of flax farming and linen production in the Midwest. See the plants in bloom and enjoy casual conversation with experts about planting, harvesting, retting, and processing to prepare long bast fibers for spinning.
G Happy Hour Flax-y Lecture-ish and Linen Fashion Show
Time: 4-6PM
Presenters: Leslie Schroeder of Midwest Linen Revival, with clothes modeled by the VO5 dancers and Yes Ma’am geniuses of Improv Comedy
Location: High Noon Saloon
701 E Washington Ave, Madison, WI 53703
Parking Lot on site
Not just for mummies – linen is comfy stuff that will return to the soil without a trace when we are all dead and gone. Go home with a bit more knowledge about how humans have been growing their own clothes since the beginning of time, and the stories we tell ourselves – from fairy tales to Wisconsin history to the current flax-to-linen revival – from the founder of Midwest Linen Revival, Leslie Schroeder. Then you’ll get to see real Madison superstars strut on stage in style that makes you smile. These ladies from the Yes Ma’am Improv and VO5 dancers will show off slow fashion, highlighting the versatility of linen for different looks and bodies while celebrating the original fabric from Egypt that is poised to make a comeback on midwestern farms near you.
H The Nettle Dress, a film from textile artist Allen Brown registration required
Cost: Free
Time: 7PM
Location: Art and Literature Laboratory
111. S. Livingston St. Suite 100, Madison, Wisconsin 53703
Parking Lot on site
Registration required: click here to reserve your ticket!
A modern-day fairytale, this 68 minute independent film follows textile artist Allan Brown’s seven-year journey to make a dress by hand from locally foraged stinging nettles. Like flax, the plant that linen is from, nettles are a long-bast fiber. The film is called “a hymn to the healing power of nature and slow craft.” Winner of multiple film festival audience awards and accolades, this is the Madison premier!
We are grateful to our Fiscal Sponsor and Funders!
Fibershed Heartland
Fiscal Sponsor
Grant Supporter
Grant Supporter
Grant Supporter
We are grateful for wonderful community partners and venues:
Art and Lit Lab, Babe's Fiber Garden, Creative Vixen Design, High Noon Saloon, Low Tech Institute, Madison's Weaver's Guild, StillGoods, Textile Arts Center, Troy Gardens, UW-Madison Allen Centennial Gardens, UW-Madison Center for Design & Material Culture, VO5, Yes Ma'am improv lab
Field to Frock has been curated and produced by:
Jessica Becker
Jessica Becker
Leslie Schroeder
Leslie Schroeder
Jessica is a mother to two teenage daughters, a writer, a photographer, and a wanderer. She wakes up early to practice yoga, bikes almost everywhere, enjoys cooking with her family, and is endlessly inspired by the beautiful world. She is the director of communications for Wisconsin Humanities, has a background in museums and education, and puts her energy into community projects that help us imagine a future in which we value our histories and evolve with resiliency and creativity. She is a textile enthusiast with a worldview. Read her article, “Smitten with Linen: Wisconsin’s Flax Fiber Revival,” in Wisconsin People and Ideas magazine and find ideas to liberate your spirit and light up your brain on Wanderlife.
Leslie's background is a blend of practical skills, community engagement, and a deep connection to nature.
She enjoyed fourteen years as a stay-at-home homeschooling parent of two which provided her the flexibility of time to deepen into the contemporary fiber crafts of sewing, knitting, and learning to weave on a floor loom, while also exploring traditional textile skills of twining wild cordage and hand tanning buckskins. Finding continuity from all that is ancient and modern in fiber flax, Leslie became smitten with linen.
Drawing it all together is an inspiration that there is something sacred in mending our relationship with our clothes.
Founder of Midwest Linen Revival, Leslie has been enthusiastically working to bring all that she has in passion and organizing skill into reviving a fiber-flax industry in The Midwest.
She sleeps outside whenever she can.
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