#feed sacks

International Quilt Museum - 3/9/2024 - Feed Sacks: An American Fairytale

Author Linzee Kull McCray explores the history of the humble feed sack, from a plain burlap or cotton sack to exuberantly patterned and colourful bags that were repurposed into frocks, aprons and quilts by thrifty housewives in the first half of the 20th century. Extensive imagery and at-scale reproductions of these fabrics create an inspiring sourcebook of pattern and colour

Feed Sacks: The Colourful History of A Frugal Fabric

As you can see up top I could not resist the bubble bath girl. It turns out that feed sack prints came in a delightful array of styles from the usual floral print, to the bubble bath girl, to little piggies in a pen, to the most modern of geometrics like the orange squiggle right below the piggies. Linzee Kull McCray has brought together both the history of the industry of making feed sacks--which carried everything from chicken feed to flour for baking--and the clothing that women made it into. And offers a large array of images of the prints themselves.

Women had actually figured out that these very large sacks were a source of fabric before the manufacturers had, but then the manufacturers realized that the could offer their sacks in prints and out sell the other guy. Soon patterns were developed to make the most of feed sacks and told you how many sacks you would need to make a dress. Patterns for everything from dolls (some printed right on the sacks) to children’s clothes to dresses appeared and McCray offers many examples. The 1950s party dress patterns to make out of feed sacks are surprisingly glamorous. In fact, when I showed some feed sack prints and dresses to my students, they realized these were not makeshift garments, but items that anyone would be happy to wear.

Days of Wearing the Sugar Sack

  I saw this picture of feed sacks on Twitter yesterday and all I could think of was the great poverty of the Great Depression but at the same time there is a romance to the idea that women could make something beautiful from something so mundane from an old sack of sugar or flour. In truth, feed sacks were used for sewing well before the depressions and for several years after.  The evolution of…

When depression-era farmwomen had to start using flour bags and feed sacks to make clothes for their families, manufacturers began making their bags out of brightly-colored and printed fabrics to boost sales and add a little flair to the common sack dress. source

Someone’s Handiwork

A few months back I found two quilt tops at a local thrift store. For the pair it was less than $5 so right off I was seeing a quilting project in my future. Now to do some research and pick up the rest of the supplies. It’s time to honor a project that some ones mother, aunt, or grandmother started and finish this quilt! This site is in the process of migrating over to a self-hosted WordPress…

In times gone by, amidst widespread poverty, the Flour Mills realized that some women were using sacks to make clothes for their children. In response, the Flour Mills started using flowered fabric… With the introduction of this new cloth into the home, thrifty women everywhere began to reuse the cloth for a variety of home uses – dish towels, diapers, and more. The bags began to become very…

Feed sacks to rugs

I recently inherited over a hundred old feed sacks made of muslin fabric.  They had been washed but I gave them another good bath in really hot water to get them good and clean and to get rid of the aroma of being packed away for a very, very long time.  They held up marvelously and now I have a huge treasure to do something with.  They are not white but sort of beige/peach/pink shade of fabric.