Feed sacks, who knew???

Lauren · Dec 13, 2008

I also knew this. It was really popular, and still is, especially with quilters. You'll see vintage feed sacks catch quite a hefty price tag these days! The thing that's so great about the 30's feed sack quilting popularity is that there's a slew of repro cottons out there. I actually just picked one up a few weeks ago with little sailors waving flags. Gotta love feed sack prints.

just_me · Dec 13, 2008

Feed sack keeping a little baby warm.

dhermann1 · Dec 15, 2008

Pretty 30's feedsack dresses

Here's the link to that Shorpy image of the little girls in their very pretty feedsack cloth dresses.
http://www.shorpy.com/node/1595

texasgirl · Dec 15, 2008

Here's my feed sack dress

miss_elise · Dec 15, 2008

dhermann1 said:
Here's the link to that Shorpy image of the little girls in their very pretty feedsack cloth dresses.
http://www.shorpy.com/node/1595

that's the picture I was thinking about... good find!

LizzieMaine · Dec 15, 2008

texasgirl said:
Here's my feed sack dress

*Great* dress. And extra points for bearing in mind that a lady always wears white gloves when using her .38 in public. Powder marks are never fashionable.

MrNewportCustom · Dec 16, 2008

My mother used to make feed sacks, using fabrics like these, but with a draw string, and when we went camping they were used as laundry bags. Each of us had one.

Lee

texasgirl · Dec 16, 2008

Thanks Lizzie!

vitanola · Dec 19, 2008

Several of the Southern cotton mills had art departments where special patterns were designed for their calico sackings back in the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's.

As I recall, the widespread use of dress calico for sacking came about in the 1930's, largely as a marketing measure.

The printed sackings were generally reserved for poultry feed. Remember that poultry raising was generally the purview of the distaff side of the family.

Some millers packed flour and meal in these colorful calicoes, but this practice never really caught on.

Bill Taylor · Dec 20, 2008

I remember from the 1930s our housekeeper and my mother making aprons and sun bonnets from brightly figured flour or feed sacks. We mostly called them flour sacks, although that wasn't the only thing that came in them. Because we we bought very few groceries other than 100 pound sacks of flour, sugar, cornmeal and chicken feed, which probably lasted about a week, there was always lots of flour sacks around. Coffee beans came in a towsack (rough burlap bag). Our cook would not allow store bought bread in the house-we had homemade bread for every meal (biscuits, cornbread, light bread or rolls, hush puppies or hoe cake which is basically the same thing as cornbread but fried rather than baked). We usually had about 10 acres in garden plus a large orchard, so other food was either fresh or it came from the cellar. Meat was from the chickens, or butchered beef and hogs kept and maintained in freezer locker company downtown on Main Street. Milk, butter, cheese, etc. came from the the cows and goats. That dieters delight of today called Cottage Cheese was called turkey feed and was made by pouring unseparated milk into a towsack hung over the clothes line and let to drip(curds and whey of Little Miss Muffet fame). Opps, got off topic. Sorry about that. I'll stop now.

Bill Taylor

Forgotten Man · Dec 20, 2008

LizzieMaine said:
*Great* dress. And extra points for bearing in mind that a lady always wears white gloves when using her .38 in public. Powder marks are never fashionable.

lol So true! Must remember to be a lady even when doin' the dirty work lol

This is an interesting thread... feed sack dresses... they sure knew how to get along or get as much out of things back in those days!

I think we'll be getting more practice in this sooner then later.

BigSleep · Dec 20, 2008

I have a blanket that my grandmother made in the 1920s or 30 that is actually made out of little tobacco sacks. They are about 7 inches in length by about 3 inches wide. There must be about a hundred of then sewn together to make up one side of this blanket.

An interesting glimpse into a time when nothing went to waste.

Lady Day · Dec 20, 2008

This thread inspired my Christmas gifts this year.

LD

Idledame · Dec 20, 2008

I recall a story about a teenager who was invited to a fancy party. Her mother made the fanciest dress she could - out of feed sacks. The girl was thrilled with her new dress until she got to the party. She was mortified because she was the only one who was wearing a feed sack dress at the party and of course all the girls recognized the feed sack pattern and whispered and laughed at her. (Girls are so rotten aren't they?)
It was accepted as perfectly fine in poorer areas but she was trying to fit in with wealthier girls. Did I read it or was it an episode from Little House on the Prairie?

Another story I read involved a woman trying to collect enough feed sacks for a special dress but the feed company changed patterns so she couldn't get enough sacks of that one pattern to make the dress she wanted. The man at the feed store didn't keep track of who bought what, her friends were all collecting other patterns and she couldn't find anyone in her farming community who had the sacks she needed.

Lady Day · Apr 21, 2009

There are feed sacks still around!

I was in Smart and Final of all places (well, I guess it wouldnt be too out of sorts) and Im walking down one of the aisles, and there on a bottom shelf, next to all the other flour types in plastic sacks, rested a 30lb cotton sack with white with purple flowers! The maker was Mexican, and there were about 5 sacks total, three different designs (one white with blue flowers, the other white with pink flowers).

I thought it was the coolest thing!
When I go back Ill take a pic.

LD

Inusuit · Apr 22, 2009

Similar blanket...

BigSleep said:
I have a blanket that my grandmother made in the 1920s or 30 that is actually made out of little tobacco sacks. They are about 7 inches in length by about 3 inches wide. There must be about a hundred of then sewn together to make up one side of this blanket.

An interesting glimpse into a time when nothing went to waste.

I saw a similar blanket that had been made in the 1960's by an inmate in the old maximum security prison in Rawlins, Wyoming. Lots of Bull Durham bags when into that blanket.

Mid-fogey · Apr 23, 2009

My Dad...

...went to college with boxer shorts made of flour sacks. They used to be a very fine weave to keep the flour in and were much used after empty. My grandmother made the shorts and made herself dresses out of feed bags.

raiderrescuer · Apr 23, 2009

I remember as a child going over to my Grandmother's house in the late 60's and early 70's and all of her Kitchen Linens from Dish Towels to Pot Holders were Flour Sacks.
My Mother picked up the habit too, she would use Flour Sack Towels exclusively when she was making homemade bread to cover the dough as it rose as well as always keeping one hung up one the oven door.

Lady Day · May 13, 2009

These feed sacks were at the Smart & Final near my place.

LD

Warden · May 13, 2009

The two feed sack skirts we own, have been lent to the Cowper and Newton Musuem for their temporary WW2 War on Waste exhibition.

So if you in sunny North Bukcinghamshire (UK) do pop along and see them

Harry

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