Clogged french drain

I have a french drain with gravel wrapped around landscaping fabric across our front lawn. Unfortunately we have a lot of clay in our soil and the clay has gotten into the fabric and completely prevents any water from getting through so that it could enter the french drain, leaving us with puddles of water on the lawn. We have now removed the soil above the french drain and cleaned the fabric. What should we do now? Should we lay some gravel above the fabric before we pile some a looser soil on it? Any advice would be appreciated!

The pipe should be surrounded by crushed stone. Directly around the pipe should be 3-4 inches of 3/8" stone and then I would put a layer of 3/4" stone over that.


It is common here for no pipe to be used at all. Place the fabric to line the trench and then fill with stone. The fabric is then wrapped around the top of the stone and backfilled before raising to grade with topsoil.