Booklist: Cotton, Flax, Indigo

In part II of Fibers & Clothing (part I was Natural Dyes), we will be planning and planting a garden!

Fibers & Clothing 2024

Dye Recipes 2024

Our fiber garden will consist of stinging nettle (already planted), cotton, and flax. We will have our own little flax patch here and will also be helping with the flax section of the demonstration garden at the One-Room Schoolhouse.

Our color garden will focus solely on planting and caring for just one plant... indigo.

A Weaver's Garden: Growing Plants for Natural Dyes and Fibers
by Rita Buchanan

This little book is amazing! It has everything we're planting, plus

1 - Plant Fibers for Spinning and Stuffing

2 - Dyes from Plants

3 - Soap Plants for Cleaning Textiles

4 - Fragrant Plants to Scent and Protect Textiles

5 - Plant Materials Used to Make Textile Tools

6 - Creating a Garden

The two oldest students are doing Geometry this month, so that leaves 9 children. I can have them break into teams of 3 and each "adopt" a plant. First step, make a list of questions to research about your adopted plant. What do we need to know in order to grow it?

So it's back to using the index, which we practiced in our Geography reports! I should make a list of the additional books I have about each plant.

Cotton

blog posts

Cotton
Oct 2024

books

Cotton
by Millicent E. Selsam

The Story-Book of Science, chapter XVII "Cotton"
by Jean-Henri Fabre (FREE at Project Gutenberg)

Where Did My Clothes Come From?
by Christine Butterworth

Roses Love Garlic: Companion Planting and Other Secrets of Flowers
by Louise Riotte

A Beetle Is Shy
by Dianna Hutts Aston

Flax

blog posts

Picnic & Play: How a Shirt Grew in the Field
Sep 2019

books

How a Shirt Grew in the Field
trans. by Marguerita Rudolph

The Story-Book of Science by Jean-Henri Fabre, chapter XVI "Flax & Hemp"
(FREE at Project Gutenberg)

Linen: From Flax Seed to Woven Cloth
by Linda Heinrich

The Big Book of Flax: A Compendium of Facts, Art, Lore, Projects, and Song
by Christian and Johannes Zinzendorf

Indigo

blog posts

Indigo

books

A Dyer's Garden: From Plant to Pot, Growing Dyes for Natural Fibers
by Rita Buchanan

articles (indigo comes up a lot in U.S. History)

Stirring Up an Indigo Revival Where Slave Cabins Still Stand
The New York Times - Sep 19, 2024

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