Flax, washed before it is cut.

The bolt decides the table

Linen Holt started with one bad tablecloth: stiff as sizing board, creased down the middle fold, and smaller after the first wash than the table it was bought for. Flax does not have to behave that way. We stonewash the bolt before a blade touches it — tumbled with water and pumice until the hand is soft and the weave has already moved — so what you unfold on delivery is still the cloth you have after the twentieth dinner. Garment-washed pieces get the gentler treatment: less surface bloom, a little more body, the same settled size.

The range stays short on purpose. Cloths at 140 × 250 cm and 180 × 180 cm, a narrow 40 × 180 cm runner, dinner napkins at 42 × 42 cm, cocktail napkins at 20 × 20 cm, heavy placemats at 35 × 45 cm, a 50 × 70 cm tea towel, coasters, a bread bag and a storage sack. Shades are mill-dyed and limited: Natural, Clay, Ink, Olive, Sand, Charcoal, Ivory, Stripe. Cloths and napkins are cut from the same bolt, so a mixed table reads as one house instead of two shops.

Every piece is pre-shrunk. The first 30 °C wash should move a cloth 1.5 to 3 percent of its cut length, not the 8 percent an untreated flax bolt will give you. That difference is the whole reason we wash first and cut second.

How a lot is chosen

Nothing is listed from a photograph. A mill lot arrives as a sample metre. We cut it, hem it, wash it at 30 °C, line dry it, then measure it again: cut length against relaxed length, hem width at all four corners, and the mitre along the diagonal. If the lot moves more than 3 percent, or the dye lot drifts more than half a step from our reference swatch, it does not go on the site. That is why a shade can be missing for a month while we wait for the next mill date.

Hem work is fixed and stated, not left to the workshop of the week. Cloths carry a 1.5 cm double hem with mitred corners; the picnic cloth carries 2 cm; napkins are blind-hemmed so no stitch line shows on the face; runners, overlays and tray cloths are mitred so the corner lies flat on timber. Because cloth is cut by hand and then washed, sizes hold to plus or minus 1.5 cm on anything over 100 cm and plus or minus 0.8 cm on napkins and mats. We would rather print the tolerance than pretend a hand-cut cloth is laser-cut.

Yarn and dye are bought with OEKO-TEX Standard 100 documentation, product class II — the class for articles worn against the skin and used at table. The certificate belongs to the mill and the dye house, not to us, so we never print it as our own logo. Lot numbers and test reports can be supplied on request with a wholesale quote.

What we do not do

• We do not hold a warehouse of speculative stock. A lot is ordered against confirmed enquiries, which is why some pieces go quiet between mill dates.
• We do not dropship from an unrelated seller, and we do not put our care card on someone else's cloth.
• We do not sell seconds as firsts, and we do not hide a repair. A mended hem is described as a mended hem.
• We do not take cards on this site. There is no checkout, no payment field and no account to create.

What you can expect

An enquiry gets an answer within one business day, and never later than 48 hours. If a shade or a size is out of lot, we say so in the first reply rather than after payment. Samples of a hem, a wash and a shade go out in 5 to 7 working days by tracked courier; sample cost is credited against the first order over 24 pieces.

Orders are packed in a rigid carton with acid-free tissue, a care card and the wash instructions wrapped around the bundle. We dispatch from Hong Kong about 3 working days after the invoice is accepted. The lead time that counts is the date written on the invoice email, not the estimate on this site. Every parcel leaves with a tracked courier and a commercial invoice for your customs broker.

If a piece is wrong, the door in is the door out: write to the address printed on the care card. The window is 14 days from delivery, and the returns page sets out exactly what we can and cannot take back once a cloth has been washed, ironed or used.

Who operates this site

This site is operated by WELLAY TRADING CO., LIMITED, a Hong Kong trading company registered at RM 03, 24/F, HO KING COMMERCIAL CENTRE, 2-16 FA YUEN STREET, MONGKOK, HONG KONG. Every quotation, invoice, monogram approval and return is handled from that office. Hong Kong is the point of export, which is why invoices are issued in US dollars and why the customs paperwork for your destination is prepared before the carton is closed.

Write to WELLAY1914@outlook.com or send a message on WhatsApp +852 9660 6754. For the fastest answer, include the SKU, the quantity, the shade and the country the parcel is going to.

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