Sewing with Feed Sacks: get the inside scoop

My love for fabrics began to grow when I became a quilter. At first, only quilting fabrics tugged at my heart. Today, any fiber with color and texture will attract me like bears to honey. Enter the feed sack – read on to get the inside scoop about sewing with Feed Sacks.

With its rich history, whimsical prints, and unlikely rise to fame, I have another reason to add to my ever-expanding fabric collection (heretofore known as ‘fabric stash’). I really did not know much about feed sacks other than the fact that we always turned them into dishtowels when I was growing up in Brazil. Crochet edgings, acrylic paint, and fabric strips were used to decorate them.

These are a few examples of the dishtowels I have in my kitchen. Isn’t the work intricately done? I still get them as gifts from my family and use them every day. In fact, I prefer to dry dishes with flour sack towels as they are more absorbent, easy to clean, and always look new (except after 20 years of use as it is the case of some of mine which I cannot part with).

If you like them as much as I do, I have a tutorial to make a cute dishtowel with a flour sack, a fun idea for a gift.

And that was all I knew about these cotton bags.

Then, I received for review the book “Feed Sacks – The Colorful History of a Frugal Fabric” by Linzee Kull McCray, published by UPPERCASE and distributed by Martingale. If you want to get the inside scoop about sewing with Feed Sacks, this is the book!

I stayed up last night until I finished it. I am so glad Linzee wrote this comprehensive history of the cotton bags, beginning with facts about cotton picking to its transformations in textile mills into a fabric that was sold to bag companies to hold animal feed, grain, fertilizer, etc.

Notice again the photo of my dishtowels – they are all white. I had never seen flour sacks with prints before. Thus, I could not peel my eyes away from the gorgeous photographs in the book!

Adorned with the logos of the companies whose products they encased, the cotton bags would soon be repurposed into aprons, dish towels, diapers, quilts, and dresses by women who saw a need and filled it: times were tough, money short, the Depression and wars were pushing them to use every resource available to clothe and warm their family.

Even the thread with which the bags were stitched shut was used, rolled into balls ready to be turned into crochet doilies.

Linzee explains how the bag makers had no other choice but to yield to women’s demands for nicer designs and logos with ink that was easier to remove. Her book showcases a multitude of examples of feed sack prints, the ways companies used the bag’s ‘real estate’ to not only advertise their goods but also to provide patterns for clothing and children’s dolls and coupons, catering to the homemakers and their social activities.

The first-person accounts – whether of cotton picking, designing the layout for the front of the bags, and sewing with feed sacks – enliven Linzee’s narrative while infusing the distant history of cotton bags with timeless human experiences and precious memories.

Do any of you remember your mother or grandmother sewing with feed sacks? I bet many of you may even have aprons, quilts, and other items made with them which have been passed down through the generations.

Textile mills eventually stopped making feed sacks with the prints we have come to love, and this love is probably the main reason why we are so attracted to quilting fabrics with reproduction designs from that era. Feed Sacks is a must-read book!

After this quick trip down Memory Lane, it is time to finish writing and get ready for Thanksgiving – the family will gather, tell stories, and be thankful for life’s bounties, whether they come from a textile mill (Yes, we quilters and sewists are very appreciative of textile mills), from nature, from work or friends.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!