How To Make Hemp Clothing Material - Survival Manual

The first step in making Hemp clothing is growing the Hemp plant. Luckily Hemp is about the easiest plant to grow, requiring soil and sun and little other care. Simply sow the Hemp seed in the soil very shallow. Bury only deep enough to cover the seed. You will want to plant fairly densely so that the competition for light among your Hemp plants is enough to make the plants grow tall instead of short and bushy. This will maximize the production of fibers used for making the cloth.

Harvest the entire plant shortly after flowering. Do not wait for the weed to set unless you want to collect more seeds for future plantings.

Soak the stems in a pond or stream for about 10 days, longer if the water is cool and clear. Alternatively you can simply stack the Hemp on the ground and allow it to sit for 3-5 weeks depending on how warm and wet the weather is. These methods are called retting. If your retting occurs on the ground then turn the pile every so often so that the retting occurs evenly.

The next step is called breaking. Breaking is a process where you smash the Hemp stalks. The process takes what is like a straight piece of bamboo and turns it into a long fibrous stalk that is limp and will no longer stand up. It flops over like rope. To do this you can make various machines to help with the breaking process. One such machine is simply to make a V out of wood that fits inside of another V made of wood. There should be a gap between the two V's of roughly 1/2 inch or a little less. To work the breaking machine simply lay a few Hemp stalks that have already been retted across the larger V and smash down on it with the small V. Since the smaller V fits inside the larger V it will break the plant in two places. But you don't want to break the stem in half. You simply want to crush it up so that it becomes very flexible and wispy like hair almost. You will have to break a stem with this device many times as you slowly move the stem after each break. You will need to break the entire length of the stem. This will require multiple breaks per stem. Luckily you can do multiple stems at one time.

It is probably a good idea to hinge the two V's together so that they always come down in the same spot. This makes the process a whole lot easier. If push comes to shove you can always simply use two flat stones to do the breaking. But I am sure you will soon realize there is a better way. Let your imagination be your guide.

Scutching is the next step. Scutching in its simplest form is taking handful of Hemp after breaking and repeatedly hitting it with a piece of wood that resembles a ruler but has smooth rounded edges and is usually about 1/2 inch thick or a little less. Think of a super dull wooden machete. To scutch you repeatedly hit the Hemp with this tool over and over. This will eventually take off a bunch of wooden cores and straighten the fibers so that they are more easily combed.

Originally this was done by hand but machines were invented hundreds of years ago to greatly speed up the process. To make a machine for scutching build a fan that has the scutching blades built in. Spinning the wheel and allowing the blades to strike the Hemp allow you to strike the Hemp many times quickly. If you keep the wheel spinning and you can turn an hour long scutching job into a five minute scutching job.

Hackling is the process of combing the fibers. Why it isn't called combing I will never know. Basically you will need a big comb and will need to repeatedly comb the Hemp fibers to remove any remaining woody particles and to further align the fibers into a continuous flowing river of Hemp. I would suggest the combing process be done with a couple of different coarseness of combing teeth. Start with wider teeth gaps and progress to the finer teeth.

In the 1800's the comb would be mounted in a fixed position with the teeth facing upward. The Hemp would then be repeatedly pulled through the comb. Don't freak out when you lose some of your Hemp to the comb. This is expected and doesn't mean you are doing it incorrectly. The comb can be made of anything from wood to plastic to metal. The teeth should be tapered if possible and about 1/2 inch or less between each tooth.

Roving is the next step in the process. The Hemp is twisted and stretched out to improve strength and then it can be wound onto spinning bobbins..

Spinning is the last step in making your clothing material. Spinning is nothing more than adding twist to the Hemp fiber. But you don't want to just twist it like you would wring out a towel. To properly spin your Hemp you will need a spindle. A spindle is simply a stick with a weight on it somewhere. Spindles can come in many weights but a weight of quarter of a pound or a little less is about right.

Attach the Hemp to the end of the spindle near the weight. Your spindle will need a hole there to tie the Hemp to. Now pinch a short ways up the Hemp and spin the spindle. This will add twist to the Hemp between the spindle and the pinch. After this is done pinch a little further up the Hemp and spin the spindle again. Continue to do this until you reach the end of your Hemp. Do about two inches more per pinch. If your yarn feels like it could easily be pulled apart then add more twist. Obviously don't let the spindle spin backwards between pinches as it will unwind your work.

After your yarn gets long, wind some of it onto the stem of the spindle. Reattach to the spindle end near the weight and continue spinning.

When you are spinning and run out of fiber or if it breaks you will need to join more fibers to make your yarn longer. To join simply tease out the end of your yarn and hold them together with some overlap of unspun Hemp. Twist together until the fibers grip together. The two different Hemps will grip onto each other as if they are one piece of continuous Hemp. Now continue spinning as before.

Spinning can be done with either wet or dry fibers. Most prefer wet fibers for spinning.

The last step is called blocking. Remove yarn from the spindle for washing. Wind the yarn off of the spindle and into a series of loops around your thumb and elbow. Now submerse it in lukewarm water and then gently squeeze out the excess water. Hang or stretch out to dry.

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