Wednesday, April 25, 2012

A Little History on the Feed Sack

A Little History on the Feed Sack
by Linda LaRoque

Life on the prairie for women in the 1800s was hard. Fabric was scarce so every available piece of cloth was used until it fell apart. When the backs of skirts wore out, the panel was either turned around, or the piece was removed leaving a less full skirt. Sometimes the garment was cut down to make a garment for one of the children. Material was never thrown away, but recycled until it could only be used for cleaning rags.

Until around the 1840s foodstuffs, as well as animal feed, was packed in boxes, barrels, and crates which made it hard for a farmer without a wagon to get from the store to home. When the sewing machine was invented, double lock stitching made it possible to sew fabric secure enough to keep from spilling. Bags of flour, feed, etc. could be loaded on a horse and thus make it home without too much loss.

The first feed sacks were made of heavy white canvas printed with the name of the flour or other product. The farmer could bring empty bags back to be refilled. When mills in America began producing inexpensive cotton fabrics in the later 1800s, these cheaper fabrics were used. The cloth was softer and more useful. Not as durable, they weren’t refillable so women used them for quilt pieces and to make dish towels, curtains, pillowcases, sheets, and other items for the home. The manufacturer’s name was stamped on the sack in vegetable dye so the homemaker could remove it, often a difficult chore, and return it to pristine whiteness. Humorous stories about garments made with the stamp remaining abound—for example underwear.

In 1925 manufacturers began to realize how popular these sacks were to women and started to compete to have the most desirable patterns and colors. Here is a picture of a print representing Gone With the Wind.

Soon pattern makers were creating patterns, even evening wear, specifically for feed sacks.

The Woman - August 1953 Cover: Olga Nicholas, photographed by Dirone Studios, wears a feed-bag formal and matching stole, McCall's pattern #9121. Jewelry by Trifari.

Women often gathered to trade pieces so they’d have enough for a dress or the quilt they were piecing. Imagine how valuable they were to homemakers during the depression. It was hard enough to manage to provide food, fabric was an extravagance. Special was the husband and father who selected several sacks of matching material so his girls could have a new dress.

My mother-in-law said in the late 1920s she chopped cotton all day long, from sunup to sundown, and earned a quarter, just enough to buy two and a half yards of fabric to make a dress. A feed sack holding fifty pounds of flour measured 34 x 38 inches, a yard of fabric. So, depending on the size of the pattern and the style, it would take approximately 3 sacks to make a dress.

When talking about fabric and dress making, it’s interesting to consider Taylor’s Hemline Index which indicates that when the economy is good, skirt lengths are shorter, and when it’s bad, skirts are longer. I know myself that during the late 1960s when mini-skirts were the rage, the economy was good. A few years later in 1974, we had the oil embargo and gas rationing, hemlines were longer. The cycle has repeated itself many times since the Roaring Twenties.

My cousins and I loved the feed sack dresses our Aunt Jewell made for us. Grandma Riley saved the sacks until there was enough for a dress. There was one in particular I’ll never forget. It was a floral pattern with muted oranges and yellow, like a watercolor. The skirt was full and of course I wore a petticoat or two underneath. I have a picture but it isn’t in color and not sharp enough to post. A friend with several sisters grew up on a farm. They often went with their father to the feed store so they could pick out the pattern they wanted. She said it never failed, the one they wanted was always on the bottom.

For further reading, check out this link.

How about you? Did you ever wear feed sack dresses? If so, tell us about your favorite one. Feed sacks are in vogue again. Maybe you’re a crafter and enjoy making items to show off their unique characteristics.

References:

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Thank you, Linda!

Great reads from
Linda LaRoque:
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A Love of His Own


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25 comments:

  1. Linda, my mom talked about wearing feed sack dresses. I have an elderly friend who wrote a cute story about her first day of school in her yellow print feed sack dress and how proud she was of that dress and of her mother for making it.Precious story. I was a city girl until we moved out of the city after our kids were in college, so I don't have as many stories of this type. Loved your post!

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    1. Thank you, Caroline. I lived in the city but my granny lived in the country so we were able to enjoy both worlds. I'd love to read your friends story. I was proud of my feedsack dresses too.

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    2. What great information. Thanks for sharing it. I learned some things, some of them surprising. :) -laura

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    3. Hi, it's Laura. I forgot my email.
      L_Hogg at comcast dot net

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    4. So glad you learned something new, Laura. I love it when I do. Thank you for stopping by

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  2. Great article! I didn't wear a feed sack dress, but my grandmother has several dish towels made from flour sacks and a pair of curtains.

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    1. Thank you, Paty. I think I still have some of my mil's feedsack dish towels. They are excellent for drying dishes. Not that I do that much but she did. Hated using her dishwasher. I appreciate you stopping by!

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  3. I remember flour sack dish towels--they worked better than the towels you buy today. My mom didn't sew but I remember my friend's house with the curtains, but don't think anyone wore clothes made of them. Oh, but they made quilts. The material worked up really nicely for that. :)

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    1. Yes, they did, Jacquie. Some of the fabrics were quite pretty but of course they had to be starched and ironed. Nothing was permanent press back then.

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    2. My iron went on strike the second I moved away from my parent's house. LOL. I think we have one, but couldn't tell you where it is. And I'm not going to look for it, either. LOL

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    3. I'm with you, Jacquie. I have one and a fold down ironing board but I rarely use it. If it has to be ironed, it doesn't get worn much.

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  4. Linda,

    This is so interesting. I've seen feed sacks with print on them and often thought they would make perfect pillow cases! I like the idea of using ones with the logo still on for 'unmentionables'!

    Great post!

    debratsjohn08@yahoo.com

    DebraStJohn

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  5. FASCINATING history, Linda! I remember old dish towels, but not dresses. Awesome research. LOL on Jacquie's iron - I have one too, but it's a rare day if I use it... for sewing.

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    1. Thanks, Meg. I used to sew a lot and an ironing was necessary to make things go together properly. I haven't made anything to wear in years. Thanks for stopping by!

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  6. I never had a feed sack dress, but my mom had dish towels made out of flour sacks and hand embroidered. She was very proud of them and they did look nice. However, when I used one in a 4-H cooking contest, I was graded down because the judge thought it wasn't special enough for a contest. What did she know?

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    1. Ah, that's horrible! I don't see what that would have to do with how your food tasted or it's appearance either. As a Home Ec teacher I graded 4-H cooking and sewing competition on occasion. It wouldn't have occured to me to judge the dish towel!!!

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  7. A very interesting post, Linda. I was totally fascinated. I don't think we ever had feed sack dresses, but I remember Grandma making all of our clothes when we were young.

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    1. Hi Sandy, You were a city girl though, weren't you? And your grandmother also lived in town. That's probably why. My grandmother didn't have a sewing machine but my aunt did. She made a lot of my clothes.

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  8. What an interesting post. I didn't realize they made dresses out of the actual feed sack. I couldn't imagine having to press everything. I'm spoiled. I like the material that doesn't require ironing. lol And if it does need a little spoofing, I use Downey Wrinkle Free. lol

    kmnbooks at yaho dot com

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    1. I'm with you, Karen. Downey Wrinkle Free is one of the best inventions ever. :)

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    2. Some of the patterns were beautiful, Karen. Love the Downey Wrinkle Free!!!

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  9. Linda, we had things made from flour sacks too. Mostly dish towels but other things as well. Great post!

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    1. Thanks, P.L. Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for stopping by.

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  10. Linda, thank you for a nostalgic reminder of many conversations I listened to between my aunts, most of whom grew up on the family farm before it was lost in the Depression. They were poor; farmers struggled well before the stock market crash. I grew up hearing about canning, ploughing and yes, flour sack dresses. :)

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  11. Ha! Linda, I just found your article while doing some Google research on 19th century fabric flour sacks. Knew printed sacks were popular for dressmaking during the Depression Era because my father-in-law worked in a feed store as a boy and loved to tell the story of the lady who needed a dozen matching feed bags to make look-alike dresses for her daughters for Easter. To hear him tell it, the pattern she chose was on the bottom of each of twelve stacks of feed, and he had to move them all with a smile. ;)

    Glad to know that flour sacks were around in the 1880s, too.

    Small world! Thanks for the great information! :)

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