Field to Frock events bring people together to learn from each other and to celebrate the future of farming, fashion, and flax. Midwest Linen Revival is delighted to present the second annual Field to Frock festival June 23-26, 2026.
Come makers, artists, textile enthusiasts, agriculturalists, small farmers, local foodies, slow-fashionistas! Together we are weaving relationships with materials, makers, growers, and thinkers to encourage a richer, modern human connection with textiles.
Attend one event or all of them! We promise you’ll leave with a greater appreciation for the connections between soil health and human health, traditional skills with future resilience, and individual crafting with community wellbeing. And learn some things about our connection past, present, and future with the beautiful flax plant.
Learn more and register for events, including visits to the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection featuring historic linen objects, on the Midwest Linen Revival website.
Nancy M. Bruce Center for Design and Material Culture events:
Historic Linens Tours
Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection
Thursday, June 25 and Friday, June 26
Registration required via Midwest Linen Revival website
Did you know that one of the world’s largest textile collections is on the UW-Madison campus?
The Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection, housed in the Nancy M. Bruce Center for Design and Material Culture at the School of Human Ecology at UW-Madison, includes over 14,000 textile artifacts spanning 16 centuries and 108 countries. Started by a fiber enthusiast and beloved Wisconsin professor Helen Louise Allen, the remarkable research collection will be open for special Field to Frock tours on Thursday, June 25 and Friday, June 26. This is a unique opportunity to peek inside the storage space and learn the inside story about a few linen pieces that will represent a range of cultures, time periods, and functions with cultural historian and textile specialist Sophie Pitman. Pre-registration recommended as space is limited.
A pioneer in her field, Professor Allen approached textile objects as cultural records through which human nature and history could be better understood. For this linen-focused, hands-on opportunity, Dr. Pitman will share stories from some of highlighted objects from the collection and invite relevant, timely conversation about what we can learn about how linen has been made, worn, valued, and cared for around the world, throughout history.
