By Mary Davis
Feed sacks a.k.a. pretties, cotton commodities bags, chicken linen.
Before feed and flour sacks, food was transported in barrels, kegs, boxes, and tins for about the first 200 years in America.
Around the 1820s to 1840s, hand-woven, handsewn cotton bags were made to carry corn, wheat, and other grains to the gristmill, and after it was ground into powder, flour from these dry-goods could be hauled back home. Farmers would stamp their names on their sacks so that the miller would know who the grain belonged to. These bags made transporting products by horseback much easier.
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1925
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| 1926 |
Sacks grew in popularity with the advent of sewing machines, and flour sack machines were invented. Women used them for kitchen towels, diapers, aprons, bandages, rags, and more. Clothing was made as early as the 1890s.
Laframboise Family in Flour/Feed Sack
Clothes
When textile mills got involved, they stamped advertising and logos on them. Farm wives would use lard, kerosene, fels, naphtha, and bleach to remove these, with varying degrees of success. When the textile industry got wind of this, they started using washable vegetable dyes to make the promotional printing easer to remove, therefore making their bags more desirable. Poor children were often teased for wearing “chicken-feed clothes.”
By the nineteen-teens, the use of barrels had virtually disappeared.
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Flour & Feed Packing Facility, 1918,
Cleveland, OH
In the 1920s, marketers decided to up the game of bag appeal, so entered the calico, gingham, and plaid prints as well as days-of-the-week towels and embroidery patterns to turn sacks into pillowcases. There were even dolls and stuffed animals printed on some to sew for children’s toys. Quilts were also a popular item to make from these colorful sacks.
What had once been throwaway packaging became a product unto itself. Companies became competitive and created limited edition prints. Hurry and buy them before they’re gone. <SIGH> Nothing has changed.
Women would send their husbands to the store with instruction to buy so many of a particular print. Heaven help the man who came back with the wrong or mismatched designs.
Feed companies even issued clothing patterns to include how many sacks it would take to make them. Some even included them inside the bag. Clothing made from feed sacks became a booming success. Magazines featured them. County fairs had competitions to see who could make the most beautiful, fashionable dress. Even wedding dresses were sew out of them.
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| Feedsack dress by Mrs. Dorothy Overall |
McCalls and Simplicity patterns also began putting the number of sacks needed to make them.
In the 1930s, sewing garments out of these sacks was a necessity. When WWII came along and textiles were rationed, repurposing this fabric was patriotic, even heroic. Government got involved, instructing people how to make children’s clothing out of sacks. So what had been done out of a need to survive was now a mandate. The feed and flour companies pushed to get feed sack cloth labeled as industrial textile so it wasn’t under rationing efforts.
By the early 1940s, 3.5 million women and children were wearing feed sack clothing. At its height, textile companies were producing 1.3 billion yards of sack cloth per year. After the war, rationing lifted and ready-made clothing became available again. Companies began using paper and plastic for packaging, which were cheaper to produce.
Though not as common, pretties, cotton commodities bags, and chicken linen continued to be printed and worn into the 1960s.
THE QUILTING CIRCLE SERIES Box Set
Historical Romance Series
By Mary Davis
THE WIDOW’S PLIGHT (Book1) – Will a secret clouding a single mother’s past cost Lily her loved ones?
THE DAUGHTER’S PREDICAMENT (Book2) *SELAH & WRMA Finalist* – As Isabelle’s romance prospects turn in her favor, a family scandal derails her dreams.
THE DAMSEL’S INTENT (Book3) *SELAH Winner* – Nicole heads down the mountain to fetch herself a husband. Can she learn to be enough of a lady to snag the handsome rancher?
THE DÉBUTANTE’S SECRET (Book4) – Complications arise when a fancy French lady steps off the train and into Deputy Montana’s arms.
Mary lives in Colorado with her Carolina Dog, Shelby, and her pocket black Lab, Willow. She has three adult children and three incredibly adorable grandchildren. Find her online at: Books2Read Newsletter Blog FB FB Readers Group Amazon GoodReads BookBub
Sources
https://lorabloomquist.com/feedsacks-flour-sacks-grain-sacks-difference/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yVbH0qK6VQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LOu4UmFeTU
https://textileranger.com/2013/09/30/flourishing-in-flour-sacks/
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