How It All Began:

During my research into flax growing, processing, and making with linen yarn, I came across Rosie’s name a few times, so I was delighted when we were both booked as speakers for the Sustainable Fibre Symposium, an online event organised by the lovely team behind The Loomshed. Rosie talked about completing her MSc in Fashion and Textile Management and being a co-founder of the Fantasy Fibre Mill. I spoke about our Let’s Grow Flax group, which grew 40 square metres of flax communally with the vision of creating a collectively made linen garment.

We started talking about a possible collaboration there and then. In 2024, when all Let’s Grow Flax fibre was retted and scutched, we reconnected to follow our shared vision: to empower local communities by creating sustainable, locally-produced linen yarn from home-grown flax.

Shared Vision

The collaboration aimed to explore the feasibility of producing linen yarn from communally grown flax: flax grown by 30 novice growers in various locations with different soil conditions and sunlight levels. A bit of a risk, as 2023 was a challenging year to grow flax due to a very cold spring, followed by a very hot summer. (Flax is a cool-season plant.)

Another aim was to establish a regional textile network between local micro flax processing and spinning facility. By providing communities access to mechanical scutching, hackling, and spinning, they could transform their flax into beautiful linen yarn. This initiative is a step towards reconnecting people with their landscapes, their textiles, and their local fibre plants.

This vision was underpinned by Fibreshed's ethos. The project embraced a "soil-to-soil" approach, prioritising local materials, labour, and production methods free of harmful chemicals. The ultimate goal was not only to produce linen but to enhance soil health, foster biodiversity, and educate the public on the benefits of decentralising obscure textile supply chains.

Image credit: ©Fibreshed @https://fibershed.org

Who Are Fantasy Fibre Mill?
Team Rosie and Nick come with impressive credentials! Rosie won the "Sustainable Fashion Award" Innovation Challenge 2022 for her work during her MSc.
Both Rosie and Nick also secured funding from Innovate UK, the UK’s national innovation agency, to build the first flax processing mill for long flax fibre, also known as the Fantasy Fibre Mill. They also won the "Create Change Challenge" as part of this year’s Converge competition! This award includes a £30,000 cash prize as well as in-kind business advice and support. By mid-2023, The Fantasy Fibre Mill was born—a pioneering micro-mill using open-source machinery to enable small-scale, bioregional production of natural fibre yarn.  

In their own words:

"We aim to disrupt the extractive and exploitative fashion supply chain and instead produce textiles which nurture the local environment and community. Together with our collaborators across the country, we are building a soil-to-soil textile economy in the UK."

(Source: Fantasy Fibre Mill)

First Meetings
Our first meetings happened on Zoom, discussing schedules, yarn specifications, processing requirements, and deadlines. Although the main location for the mill is in Scotland, Nick has a small set-up in London—which is fantastic news! This means that the Let’s Grow Flax yarn will be spun within 50 miles of the growing location, aligning with Fibreshed principles of a 50-mile radius.

My first visit at the London studio is scheduled for mid-June, and I can't wait to meet Nick in person and glimpse the amazing tools they’ve built.

First Meeting Images
And here they are—the first micro-mill open-access tools in action. So exciting!