I know that some of you guys make quilts with these things and wondered if you used new sacks or just the vintage. I saw a pack of 12 at Sams for $12.95 or something like that so I grabbed them just incase. My next question is.... If you can use these, how can you tea die these so that they aren't stark white? I read somewhere on here that you can do this just have no idea how. Thanks in advance for any input you guys can give me.

make some tea and stick them in it for a while, keep checking for color. I love the antique look tea gives fabric.

I also like to use leftover coffee to dye things, I save it in a container in the fridge for a few days when I know I am getting ready to dye something. I love to do needle work on the dish towels and make wall hangings or sew them into quilts.

A little research into flour sacks will also show that the sacks originally used were printed. In the depression, companies sold goods (flour, sugar, animal feed, etc.) in fabric sacks. As added incentive to buy, the companies used fabrics that the housewife/mother would use for clothing, curtains, quilts. It is quite interesting to see the variety of items made from the old sacks. A friend of my mother's told of wearing underclothing that still had the brand name of the sugar company on it.

As to current flour sacks, there are still companies that use the fabric. We pay a premium for it here, to get flour in fabric. I have not used the flour sack (towels?) from Sam's. Let us know how it works.

Good price, never saw them at Sams!

After tea or coffee dyeing, I let them drip dry and then throw them in the dryer for about 30 minutes to set the "stain." Then wash and rinse them by hand to get out any excess tea/coffee :D:D:D

My neighbors are both in their 70's and they remember all of their clothes made from the fabric from flour sacks. And I have seen a few quilts that Mrs Ester's mom made from them in the 40's and they are gorgeous! They were all prints but like you said they used the material for table cloths, quilts, curtains, aprons you name it. I have several of the old sacks that she had in a storage container that she gave me and then I heard that they are supposed to be selling flour in sacks like that again. I have been looking for them but havent found them yet.

Billy

My grandfather's brother raised chickens back in the 1940s. I would go with my grandparents to visit them and my grandmother always brought back quite a few feed sacks. She would make dresses for my sisters and shirts for my brothers and me. I have about a dozen of those sacks in my stash. One of the materials I remember having a shirt made from. Brings back good memories. I also have the old Singer my grandmother did her sewing on. She could make anything. She'd get yesterday's newspaper and cut out a pattern for whatever dress my sisters saw that they wanted. One of my sisters has the same ability. Anyway, feed sacks, as we called them, were good. And, of course, I'm old (71), but enjoying this quilting thing

I saw Eleanor Burns in Paducah when she was talking about flour sacks...told a story about her grandmother making underwear for her grandfather out of flour sacks and right across the front of one pair it said "Self Rising". I thought the tent would collapse. Sooooo funny.

Too Funny!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Billy