Collectible Feedsack Cloth
The Past Revisited
by Patricia L. Cummings
photos by James Cummings
Collectible feedsack, like any textile that is desirable to save and store must be clean, free of mold and mildew, untorn, ungrawed by mice and rats, free of fecal matter, or grain that would draw rodents to the storage area. Most often, reusable feedsack for making household linens and clothing was 100% cotton, not canvas, or burlap.
Feedsack cloth, so treasured by quilters and collectors today, is actually recycled cloth from sacks and bags that once held all sorts of consumable
goods from sugar to flour to chicken feed, grains, rice, and even dog food. The sacks were sometimes plain white but with printed (advertising) ink that would wash out. One quilter in Maine recalls that her mother could often be seen in better weather, outside with an old fashioned scrub board and basin, trying to get those old flour and sugar sacks perfectly white. After all, she needed them as “plain fabric to go along with all those prints.” She used many of them in crazy quilt blocks that she pieced over
newspaper.
Click on any image for a larger view. Use your "back" button on the browser to return to this screen.
Some bags, with ink still present, can be seen today on the back of unfinished quilt blocks and quilt tops. Ironically, on some sacks, all of the ink would be water soluble, except for one line of instruction which told how to remove the ink! Later, ink letters were replaced with paper labels which could be easily soaked off.
Flour bag with a removable paper label.
As time went on, the producers of feedsack cloth became sensitive to the wish of housewives that ink be water soluble and revised their printing methods. During WWII, especially, it was important to encourage women to recycle the bags.
Feedsack was very adaptable and though it was used in quilts, it more often was recycled into dresses, aprons, underwear, curtains, towels, and dolls. The cloth seems to have been more frequently used in the rural areas of the south and in the Midwestern United States where farms abound.
Example of a dress made from feedsack cloth. Hanger cover is also feedsack.
Dresses Made of Feedsack Cloth
The feedsack dress at the right is from the Midwest and is of 1930s vintage. The yellow collar picks up one of the colors in the green print fabric. The turquoise and white clothes hanger cover, seen under the edges of the dress's top, was discovered in our 1821 New Hampshire home, in a third floor closet. It is also made of feedsack cloth.
Until recently, the person responsible for the idea of printing feedsack in colorful designs, was not known. However, a newspaper article in the Citizen Tribune of Morristown, Tennessee reports feedsack collector, Frances Clark, as having mentioned that the Percy Kent Co. credits Richard K. Peek, with the great idea. A publication in honor of the company's 100th anniversary (in 1985) shares the company lore of just how this idea came to Richard, a major stockholder in the company. The marketing ploy to offer lovely fabrics helped to boost sales, making that company one of the largest of its kind in the country.
Recycling Trend
This recycling trend lasted from the mid-1920s through the Great Depression of the 1930s, and the war years of the 1940s. After that, paper and plastic bags began to replace the cloth ones. However, cloth bags continued to be produced into the early 1960s, in a more limited way.
A few manufacturers will take special orders to make them, even today. For example, I was sent a small muslin bag containing "Anasazi beans." The drawstring bag, which originated in the Four Corners area of the southwest, featured a stamped or stenciled outline of a coyote howling at the moon. Not wanting to waste the bag, I embroidered and beaded it, as a fun little project.
Colorful, printed feedsack bags were constructed so that when the side seam was opened, the resulting piece of usable cloth was approximately 37” x 43,” equal to more than one yard of fabric. Many sacks were engineered so that, with the removal of one string, the result would be a ready-to-use apron or tea towel. Three sacks were usually enough to make a woman’s dress. Women would sometimes gather to trade feedsacks so that they would have enough of one kind to make a garment.
In her book, Textile Bags (The Feeding and Clothing of America): Identifications & Value Guide, Anna Lue Cook states that in 1942 an estimated three million Americans were wearing garments made from printed feedsack cloth. One friend in Wisconsin remembers wearing nothing else but feedsack dresses until she was in the eighth grade. Even undergarments were made from the cloth. Can you just imagine the consternation of little boys who had chickens marching across their bottoms?
Bags Recycled to Dishtowels
The bags that held flour and sugar were tightly woven and “wore” well as dishtowels. Some of these were embroidered with Outline Stitch designs (sometimes Redwork). Flour bags represented 42% of bag production 
while sugar sacks accounted for 17% of total bags manufactured. Usually, both flour and sugar bags held quantities of only five or ten
pounds. Advertising slogans such as, “The best cooks are generous with sugar,” and “Food that is sweet is hard to beat,” could be found on sugar bags. The initials "NRA" and the words "we do our part" were added to many sugar bags. NRA=National Recovery Act.
Instructions on how to open the bag were sometimes printed on the back, as was the case of one bag made for the National Sugar Refining Co. in New Jersey which held Jack Frost Cane Sugar. Usually, these small bags were a piece of cloth, folded in half, and stitched on one side only. A coarse type of string with which the bag was closed, was saved, and often found new use as quilting or crochet thread during those hard economic times. As an additional lure for mothers, companies sometimes printed cut-out dolls or stuffed animal patterns on these sacks. Today, these types of sacks are highly collectible, especially if found in an unused condition.
Burlap was used in the manufacture of “gunny sacks,” bags that held farm produce, such as potatoes. These are not to be confused with “feedsack”or "feedbags.” Gunny sacks were too “scratchy” to be sewn into clothing. Farmers would recycle gunny sacks by laying them over newly seeded gardens or lawn to prevent birds from eating the seed. One advantage, since they were made from a natural fiber, (hemp), is that, in time, they would disintegrate back into the soil.
"Use it Up, Wear it Out, Make it Do, or Do Without!"
The practice of finding new uses for something that would otherwise be discarded is not hard to understand, particularly if one looks at the dire poverty that faced residents in rural areas, especially during the Great Depression. Some sacks that had one edge which featured a “border print” made especially nice pillowcases. One of those purchased from Sharon’s Antiques, www.rickrack.com, is shown here.
Edge of pillowcase with "Colonial Lady." Collection of Patricia Cummings
Once the manufacturers realized the value of printed cloth to consumers, they competed to provide the most desirable prints. The woman of the house would often give her husband strict “marching” orders when he left for the feed store, telling him exactly what color bags to choose, and if she wanted a new dress, the sacks might have to match! Feedsack cloth became lovingly referred to by other names such as “chicken linen,” “hen house linen,” or just “pretties.” Novelty prints and juvenile prints (especially of animals) are particularly collectible today and continue to yield high prices on eBay.
Solid color feedsack was manufactured in the colors of red, purple, lavender, tan, brown and pastels of blue, pink, green, and yellow. The solids are becoming increasingly rare, to the point that many quilters are dyeing new material to resemble these old (1930s-look) colors. Often, feedsack was printed with floral designs. Other motifs include geometrics, stripes, large polka dots, birds, animals, and in one case, a “Gone with the Wind” print, now highly sought after by collectors.
The invention of the sewing machine in the mid-nineteenth century had made it possible to sew cloth feed bags with seams strong enough to make them viable replacements for barrels, tins, and other unwieldy containers previously utilized for transporting, storing, and selling goods.
Until 1900, barrels were used to transport and store milled grains. The bags were initially made in sizes to accommodate similar amounts stored in barrels or half barrels. A standard flour barrel held 196 pounds; a half-barrel accommodated 98 pounds; and a quarter barrel was equal to 49 pounds.
In addition, huge bags, ranging in size from 6’ to 12’ long were specifically made for harvesting cotton. Some of these sacks had small plastic dots embossed on the bottoms to make them more durable.
In 1943, the War Production Board, under the direction of President Roosevelt, ordered that only six standardized feedsack sizes be produced: 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 lb. bags. As a result, pre-1943 bags in odd sizes, such as those that held six pounds or any other size other than those listed above, are rare and in demand by collectors.
There were approximately forty two different companies that made feedsack cloth. One of the largest feedsack manufacturers was Bemis Brothers of Minneapolis, Minnesota, which had offices in a number of cities throughout the United States. Any antique bags made by that company are very collectible as they are prized for their charming logo of a cat coming out of a bag.
Any 1930s quilter who lived through the Great Depression would be shocked at the prices of feedsack today. As antiques, these pieces of cloth have to be in top notch condition to command a high price. Buyers will not pay top dollar for a sack that is stained, has holes, is woven poorly, or is considerably torn. In addition, the buyer likes to see those holes at the top of the bag to be able to verify that the cloth’s authenticity. Among online vendors for feedsack cloth and antique sewing collectibles is Betty Wilson's site www.OldHankies.com. Schiffer Publishing Co. published her second book, Printed and Lace Handkerchiefs. A review of the book appears on this site.
Dick and Georgina B. Fries own a business called Bellwether Dry Goods: http://www.bellwetherdrygoods.com/. They sell quilts made from vintage feedsack cloth and make arrangements for quilt tops to be hand quilted by Amish or Mennonite women across the country. Check with them for availability of feedsack cloth. Their mailing address is: P.O. Box 6, 137 Bayard Rd., Lothian, MD 20711.
Certain companies are reproducing feedsack cloth as yard goods. At the time that this originally article was written, there were three companies doing producing replica feedsack cloth: Chanteclaire, Marcus Brothers, and Spring Industries for JoAnn Fabrics’ 60th anniversary.
Just for Fun
This is a sack that was found to purchase at an antiques shop in Maine.
RESOURCES
Out of Print Books on Feedsack: (Check your local library, eBay, and used book sellers for availability.)
There is relatively very little currently in print on the subject of feedsack cloth. The book that is considered to be the “Bible” of feedsack is: Textile Bags (The Feeding and Clothing of America): Identification & Value Guide by Anna Lue Cook, (Books Americana Inc., 1990).
For quilters, interested in the use of feedsacks, a book full of ideas is Cotton Candy Quilts: Using Feedsacks, Vintage and Reproduction Fabrics, by Mary Mashuta, (C&T Publishing, 2001).
Dress 1992: Vol. 19. Recycling Feed Sacks and Flour Bags: Thrifty Housewives or Marketing Success Story? by Loris Connolly. 17-36.
Another book geared toward quilters is: Fabulous Feedsack Quilts, (Chitra Publications, (now out of business).
A quilt history book that has a chapter of feedsack is: Soft Covers for Hard Times, Quiltmaking & the Great Depression by Merikay Waldvogel, (Rutledge Hill Press, 1990).
4/16/04 Additional Print Resources, Articles by Pat L. Nickols
On the Cutting Edge, An Oral Traditions Project, ed. Jeannette Lasansky, (Lewisburg, PA, 1994). “Feed, Flour, Tobacco, and Others Sacks: Their Use in the 20th Century,” by Pat Nickols, 96-101.
Piecework magazine, (Colorado: Interweave Press, March 1993), “What's at Hand: Using Cotton Sacks in Quilt Making” by Pat L. Nickols, 48-54. This is an expanded version of the journal paper listed below.
Uncoverings 1988: Volume Nine of the Research Papers of the American Quilt Study Group, “The Use of Cotton Sacks in Quiltmaking,” by Pat Nickols, 57-71.
Feedsack Booklet
In 2005, Darlene Zimmerman wrote a booklet on feedsack which, with my permission, incorporates some material from this website article. The booklet is being marketed through the Quilts and Other Comforts catalog.
Questions on Feedsack (reader questions) - Please write to us, if you have any answers. pat@quiltersmuse.com
Thanks to Betty Cant, Dianne Senechal, Sandy Cunningham, and Pat Nickols for contributing additional points of information to this article. Many thanks to Patricia Warner, Ph.D. for pointing out the journal article in Dress.
Quilter's Muse Publications, Concord, NH. All rights reserved. Questions? Comments? Write to: pat@quiltersmuse.com