Our own OPQG member, Dorothy Fann, gave a trunk show of feed sack quilts for our September 2019 meeting. Those old sacks can truly become some charming quilts! If you are unsure what feed sacks are, below is a little history.
Initially, farm and food products were shipped in barrels. The feed sack story started in the early 1800s when goods such as food staples, grain, seed, and animal feed were packed for transportation and storage in tins, boxes, and wooden barrels. These were not ideal storage methods as tin would rust, and the handmade boxes and barrels often leaked, ere easily damaged, bulky, heavy, and difficult to transport. Between 1840 and 1890, cotton sacks gradually replaced barrels as food containers. In 1846, the invention of the “stitching machine” made it possible to sew double-locking seams strong enough to hold the contents of a bag. Feed sacks were initially made of heavy canvas and were used to obtain flour, sugar, meal, grain, salt, and feed from the mills. Later, cotton was used, and women quickly discovered that these bags could be used as fabric for quilts and other household needs.
It took a while for feed and flour sack manufacturers to realize how popular and useful these sacks had become. Eventually, they saw a great opportunity to promote the use of feed sacks. First, feed sacks began to be sold in solid colors, and around 1925, colorful prints for making dresses, aprons, shirts, and children’s clothing began to appear in stores. Manufacturers began to paste on paper labels making it far easier to remove them. By the late 1930s, there was a heated competition to produce the most attractive and desirable prints, and artist
s were hired to create custom designs. The use of colorful, original artwork turned out to be a great marketing ploy as women picked out the flour, sugar, beans, rice, cornmeal, and even feed and fertilizer for the family farm based on which fabric prints they desired. Some sacks displayed lovely border prints for pillowcases, and scenic prints were also popular. Feed sack manufacturers even created preprinted patterns for dolls, stuffed animals, appliqué, and quilt blocks.
We usually think of feed sacks as being a source of fabric for clothing and bed coverings during the economic hard times, including the dust bowl, thee boll weevil depression in the south during the 1920s, and the Great Depression that followed. But actually, printed feed sacks were used for sewing long before these depressions to well after World War II.
