The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County has spun up a special stars-and-stripes creation in honor of the nation’s 250th anniversary.
A 3-by-5-foot American flag created entirely from locally sourced wool and crafted by hand is now on display at St. James Farm.
Abby Douglass, a heritage interpreter with the Graue Mill and Museum in Oak Brook, began the process back in September.
“We do a lot of textile work at the mill,” said Douglass. “We have the materials to do this. We have a wonderful group of artisan interpreter volunteers who can help make it. And I think it would also be a great way to involve school kids and the general public in making the flag.”
Creating the handwoven American flag
The process began at Kline Creek Farm.
“They raise Cotswold sheep, and they shear them by hand so they don’t use a pair of electric shears,” said Douglass. “They actually use a pair of big scissors, essentially to give the sheep a haircut.”
That sheared wool is sent to the mill to be cleaned and combed and then spun into yarn.
“That whole process can take some time. Depends on how dirty the wool is. And you know, just spinning it is a process, right? Like even if you’re a really fast spinner, it could take, you know, hours to even days to make enough yarn to do a project like this,” said Douglass.
After spinning the wool into yarn, it’s time to weave on a loom.
“It’s an early 20th-century floor loom, and we weave with that,” said Douglass.
A community effort to complete the flag
In all, 840 students and dozens of volunteers, visitors, and employees helped make the final product.
Douglass says the finished flag isn’t the same as the ones you’ll see on poles today.
“It wouldn’t fly in the wind because it is really heavy. It’s made of pure wool. And it’s a very dense kind of fabric that we wove,” said Douglass. “So it isn’t really as much a flag as it is kind of a quilt.”
Its creation brings a reminder, she says, of the craft behind a finished product.
“I think practicing spinning or weaving really reminds you that, like all of the clothes we wear, all of the textiles that we use on a day-to-day basis, there is always someone doing the work behind that piece,” said Douglass.
And that’s the work of many hands she says, which is the topic of a video series the forest preserve created on its full flag-making process.
The flag itself can be seen in the “Stars and Stripes: Our American Flag” exhibit, which is open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. through October 31 at the St. James Farm visitor center.
“It feels very surreal. It doesn’t feel like I’m done. I feel like I still need to do some work on it,” said Douglass. “Though it is complete. It’s finished. But it’s very satisfying to see the final product and to see how well it turned out.”
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