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Beautiful feedsacks

The feedsack dress is one of those objects indelibly linked in our minds to rural life in 1930s America. While I often feel conflicted about the glamorization of this difficult period and place, there is no denying that the feedsack dress represents some of the most uplifting and hopeful aspects of craft: creating something from nothing, and the desire for color and beauty even in the grittiest of circumstances.

In the mid-19th century, sewing technology had advanced to the point that manufacturers of grain, feed, and other dry goods began to sell their goods in heavy canvas sacks, simply printed with the manufacturer’s name. Farmers’ wives began to use these sacks for creating household goods, such as linens and kitchen towels. The manufacturers, recognizing the bags as a potential selling point for farming families, began printing the cloth with patterns. Because it would take a few feedsacks to make a single dress, the farmer could be enticed to buy several from the manufacturer to get matching patterns.

Though the feedsack was used for sewing before and after the Great Depression, it’s become a symbol of that time. The 1930s were in fact the heyday of the beautiful, colorful prints manufactured by these companies. With their beautiful floral patterns and bold feminine colors, they remain an example of beautiful frugality, self-reliance, and creativity.

To learn more about feedsacks, check out this history of feedsacks, and be sure to take a gander at this beautiful feedsack gallery and the feedsack Flickr pool.

{images above: Primrose Design feedsack gallery}

Sarai Mitnick

Founder

Sarai started Colette back in 2009. She believes the primary role of a business should be to help people. She loves good books, sewing with wool, her charming cats, working in her garden, and eating salsa.

Comments

Corvus

August 24, 2010 #

Those are amazing! And what a chunk of history- I might have to hunt around and see if I can get some.

Sarah

August 24, 2010 #

Aha!! That helps make sense of that line in “Woman” where it says, “I can make a dress out of a feedsack, and I can make a man out of you, cause I’m a woman!” Neat.

M

August 24, 2010 #

Feedsacks are gorgeous…I’ve often toyed with the idea of making a bolero jacket using one with a bold print. It would be quintessentially 30s.

Tilly

August 25, 2010 #

These are so beautiful. As a Brit, I only learnt about this part of history through reading these blogs.

wundermary

August 26, 2010 #

Manufacturers also began printing the sacks with an ink that could be washed out of the fabric in two or three washings. There was a stigma attached to having to show up to school in a feedsack dress and this made the muslin available to sewers without the tell-tale printing.