my copy of Feed Sacks with a feed sack used as wrapping.
Currently reading a book called Feed Sacks, The Colorful History of a Frugal Fabric. I have always been interested in feed sacks. They were a fabric bag made for sugar or flour or other grains and then repurposed most of the time for a dress or clothes. Both of my parents were born during the depression. They do not talk much about it although I am very interested. Things were not wasted. Food and clothing were not plentiful. A very different life from mine and my daughter's.
Feed Sacks is written by Linzee Kull McCray and published by UpperCase. It is over 530 pages of photos and stories and 850 feed sack patterns are included. It comes wrapped in a feed sack print. I ordered 2 and each came with a different fabric. Talk about a great gift!
Feed sacks are known by other names; cotton commodity bags, chicken linens, grain bags or textile bags. Since most of the people sewing were women, the manufacturers started to create their feed sacks with the woman of the house in mind. Sewing patterns were printed on the sacks, floral designs or needlework doilies.
Once the sewing machine was invented, specifically a lock stitch, bags were able to be easily made and replaced the barrels that were originally used for carrying products. Feed Sack takes the reader from the mid 1850's up to the early 1960's when sack fabric production ceased.
Linzee covers a thorough history of the feed sack. How to tell if something is a feed sack, different feed sack sizes, feed sacks around the world and the many purposes that the feed sack served from clothes to quilts to kitchen purposes and sewing contests.
a doll pattern to be cut out and made into a stuffed toy. all photos from the book Feed Sack by Linzee Kull McCray
all photos from the book Feed Sack by Linzee Kull McCray
a girl on the farm 1938. all photos from the book Feed Sack by Linzee Kull McCray
feed sack example all photos from the book Feed Sack by Linzee Kull McCray
all photos from the book Feed Sack by Linzee Kull McCray
Almost a century later these designs and prints are still popular.
Click here for more info on Feed Sacks, The Colorful History of a Frugal Fabric.
Tracey