Linen, WHP 140

70% Hemp/30% Flax, 9 oz, 58″ Wide   This mid weight linen with 38 threads per inch makes this a sturdy fabric for hard wearing shirts or aprons, trousers, knapsacks or hunting shirts. Being a light creamy unbleached, called “brown linen” in the 18th century this was considerably less expensive than white linen so the working people used this linen over white linen most often. This linen will naturally whiten over time especially if you lay it on the grass to dry. Cited in Wives, Slaves and Servant Girls “Run away . . . two convict servant women . . . one of them . . . took with her . . . check, white blue, and brown linen aprons” was published in The Virginia Gazette of 1774. When hand sewing this linen try unbleached linen thread 35/2.   Some dispute hemp is linen, but it seems clear from period dictionaries & descriptions that both flax & hemp make linen.