Feed sacks, who knew???

[LizzieMaine]

In the kitchen of my childhood (mid 50s) were "dish towels" made from cotton flour sacks, very soft and faded but printed labels still legible, perhaps wartime or pre-war? Wish I had 'em now, I'd frame a few.

I still have a few of these, made from old Domino Sugar bags. Such bags were also very commonly used to make kitchen aprons --

Here we see the immortal Little Rascal Norman "Chubby" Chaney modeling a delightful kitchen number, courtesy of Gold Medal Flour.

 

[MEDIUMMYND]

When I was a kid we used to make raincoats out of spud bags by pushing one corner into the other to make a sort of monk's cowl lookin thing, very effective, I still do it now when I have to do heavy work in the rain on the farm and would sweat too much in a Drizabone.

Here in the UK farm workers would wear hession sacks over there shoulders like a small cape for extra warmth being an open weave it provides excellent insulation much like a string vest.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

When I was a kid we used to make raincoats out of spud bags by pushing one corner into the other to make a sort of monk's cowl lookin thing, very effective, I still do it now when I have to do heavy work in the rain on the farm and would sweat too much in a Drizabone.

I am having a hard time imagining the bags....burlap is very much not -rain proof-.....were they a plastic sort of thing?

wet burlap smells rather like strange wet dog....I cannot fathom using it as any sort of rain gear.

 

[Miss 1929]

I SO want a dress made out of this feedsack!

 

[Mike K.]

Feed sacks, who knew?

I knew!!! Remember this thread...

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=32522&highlight=fabrics

My mother, once the curator of The Virginia Quilt Museum, is a textile authority on vintage feed sacks. Many of the reproduction fabrics that are being reproduced by Cranston are old feed sack patterns. We have a number of family quilts made of original cotton feed sack material.

By the way, original feed sack material was not plasticy or burlap-like. It was actually very soft, cotton. More of a poplin weave.
Original feed sacks are quite the collectors items now...and increasingly difficult to find.

 

[dhermann1]

Thanks, Mike K. I was getting the distinct impression that most people were not understanding that these feed sacks were made out of beautiful cotton cloth, designed so that the farmers' wives could recycle the material into pretty dresses, etc. Some of the patterns are just gorgeous, and so diverse!
The website explains how the wives would compete with each other at the grain store to get the best patterns. It's a great example of what we used to call good old American ingenuity. But it's also a great example of great American textile design.

 

[dnjan]

Wow! I had never seen the patterned ones. The few I have are plain, unbleached.
(I use them to store woodchips for when I finally get my backyard smoker done ...)

I do remember the dishtowels out of flour sacks from back when I was a kid on the farm.

 

[Imahomer]

Great stuff! I love learning things like that.

Thank you...:eusa_clap

 

[maggiethespy]

I actually have a flour-sack sun bonnet, two flour-sack dresses that my great grandmother made for herself and teeny-tiny Martha Washington costume made for my grandmother when she was in kindergarten, also from a flour-sack.

 

[Mrs. Merl]

I am trying to dig in my head - where I recently read a wealth of information on feed sack clothing...oy, I think it was in Reminisce magazine... I will go dig in the old ones and see...

 

[just_me]

I have a friend who is a pony breeder and more than thirty years ago they needed a blanket for a small foal when the weather turned cold. My friend's mother made a pony blanket out of a feed sack. They used recently on a foal when the temps dropped.

 

[Mrs. Merl]

Yep, it was Reminisce (well, Extra actually.) Sadly, I cannot find the information on their website. But if you have Reminisce Extra September 07 and a scanner there is a little article on it in there. People made entire family wardrobes out of feed/flour sacks! And as has been said the patterns were incredibly cool!

 

[miss_elise]

there was a thread somewhere about here that had pictures from the 30's?, i think, of a whole family and all the kids were in different feed sack clothes...

 

[dhermann1]

Yes!

I was just thinking of that. They were all blond. The oldest had a darker pink dress, and the two (or three) little ones were in a lighter pink pattern. They were at a county fair of some sort. Around 1936. Very sweet little dresses. Must have been on Shorpy.com.

 

[dhermann1]

A few more informational links:

http://www.womenfolk.com/quilting_history/feedsacks.htm
http://www.getcrafty.com/columns/kayte_terry/feedsacks_a_tradition_of_recycling_and_r.php
http://reviews.ebay.com/The-Wonderful-World-of-Feedsack-Fabric_W0QQugidZ10000000002027653

 

[Lady Day]

Feed sacks are still around. Ive seen some at thrift stores and antique shops. Rubylane sells a few, but at those prices, I expect feed (or even gold) to be in them

LD

 

[dr greg]

woof

I am having a hard time imagining the bags....burlap is very much not -rain proof-.....were they a plastic sort of thing?

wet burlap smells rather like strange wet dog....I cannot fathom using it as any sort of rain gear.

yeah I suppose they do smell a bit, but the heavy weave definitely makes them waterproof, discomfort is relative I suppose, a plastic bag would be atrocious to work in, but I've seen it done.

 

[citRon]

My Mom grew up very poor in the country outside Barbourville, Ky. -No electricity or running water. Outhouse and a well. Their house was hand-built out of stone from the nearby creek and timber from the woods around them. Grandpa worked at the sawmill when work was available and Grandma ran the house raising Mom and her 7 brothers and sisters. (Of course they walked barefoot in the snow, uphill both ways to school too!)
Mom used to tell of how her sisters and her would fight over the newest/prettiest feed-sacks to have a dress made out of it. For a very long time, I had a mental picture of her in a Burlap sack with arm and neck holes cut out of it!

 

[Imahomer]

:eusa_doh: :eusa_doh: :eusa_doh: :eusa_doh:

 

[Lady Day]

fftopic:
citRon!
My family is from Louisville! Been there over 120 years. Grew up in Newburg

Yay Louisville!

LD