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

My grandmother made dresses for my cousin and I from feedsacks. She would choose enough bags with the same print so our dresses would be alike.

Currently, I find Cooper's Mill flour in sacking - it is a company local to our area. I understand there is a company out of Montana that also is using fabric. Haven't heard of others.

We are fortunate to have Gloria Hall in our area, as well. She spoke to our guild about feed sacks, displaying several of the things she has collected. She also has a line of fabric out now that reproduce the feed sack prints.

So how do I tea dye things? just make some tea and put it in a plastic tub with the flour sacks? How long do you keep it in there?

There was a joke going around some time ago about a mother making underwear for her son out of flour sacks and every time he f**ted it smelled like fresh baked biscuits.

I remember well going to our neighbors, who raised turkeys, and buying empty feed sacks, all stitching removed and laundered and ironed ready for use. They cost 25 cents and measured a little over a yard. 2 or 3 made me a dress. They were very colorful and I liked being able to walk over the hill thru our fields to their house to make my purchases. Memories!!! This was over 60 years ago. Ruth

Until it reaches the shade you like.

Yes, that's pretty much it. How long you leave them in depends on how dark you want the fabric. I would start with 1/2 -1 hour.

You can get some good tutorials by googling "How to tea dye fabric." The method I have used is to make some very strong tea like you would make for starting iced tea. Use maybe half a dozen tea bags or a couple family size tea bags and add to a couple quarts of very hot water. Let it steep until it turns very dark. Wet whatever you want to tea dye with clear water first, wring it out til just damp, then immerse it on the strong tea. This makes it dye evenly. You may want to stir it around a bit, too. Lift the fabric up and look at it as you stir it. When it appears to be the color you want, its NOT ready yet. ;o) Let it get darker because some of the tea will rinse out and it will also dry several shades lighter. When you think its dark enough, remove and rinse in cold water til the water runs clear. (Save the tea in case you want to redo it.) I dry mine in the dryer. Take some white muslin and do a test batch and you will get the idea. Check out some of the tutorials, too.
... If you want to tea dye stuff so its sort of blotchy (to make it more antique looking) you can put it into the tea without dampening it first, and you can dab the leftover tea bag onto the fabric and make darker spots, as well. This method works well for making antique looking cloth dolls,etc. (I wear rubber gloves so I can get in there and swish it around.) Enjoy.

any pictures of these flower sacks

When you're doing the tea or coffee dyeing and want the more antique look, I dipped the towels in the tea for about 1/2 hr, rinsed and allowed to dry. After the towels were dry, I took a clean 2" paint brush dipped in the tea and dab on a paper towel to take up the excess liquid then brushed tea over the towel. Allowed the towel to air dry. This gave a more stained appearance instead of overall aged appearance.
Something that I found with the tea, and maybe this might depend on what type of tea is used, but I used ordinary tea bag tea but the tea-dyed towels had a pinkish cast to them where those dyed with coffee had more of brownish shade. My husband says when he was a Boy Scout, his grandmother dipped his BS shirts in strong coffee to help keep the khaki color. Chris

[ My husband says when he was a Boy Scout, his grandmother dipped his BS shirts in strong coffee to help keep the khaki color. Chris[/quote]

I can believe that! I agree coffee is great for dying. And its also great to drink, and for making Red Eye Gravy. ;o)

I have a questions about flour sacks used for selling flour and sugar. Didn't the flour and sugar seep out of the fabric??? I don't ever remember my Mom buying flour and sugar in fabric sacks, before my time maybe, I'd imagine, I'm 54. Did you actually get a lb. of food if it was packaged in fabric sacks??? Just a silly question I've always wondered about.

I use Pebeo Setacolor fabric paint with a little Tsukineko All Purpose Ink mixed with water in a spray bottle. Dry in the sun, put through the washer and dryer. Fast and easy.
I needed twelve grays for my Avatar and this is how I got them.

Most of my clothes were made from feed sacks when I was a kid. Mom would buy a bit of solid fabric to trim them. She would buy white flour sacks for my "bloomers". Ahhh, the good ol' days, right?

The fabric was very close woven. I recall a little dust on the shelves but no real spillage. We brought the sacks home and put the flour in 5 gallon lard cans that were saved for that purpose. Same with sugar.

What amazes me is the 5 gallon lard can. I know we used that can over and over but how long did it take to use 5 gallons of lard?

I have been working on dresden plates made from old feedsacks. But, they are all printed ones from the 30's and 40's. I would love to buy more of these if anyone has any they want to sell. Mama told me that Grandma made her and her sisters a lot of clothes out of these old sacks. Most of them are very pretty!!

When we went to the feed store, we knew exactly how many sacks it took to make a shirt or dress and dug through the pile until we had enough of one pattern for what our school wardrobe needed. Sometimes we had to work on it for several months but it was a big deal to pick out what we liked. It was always interesting on the first day of school to see which of your friends choose the same pattern! Mom made quilts and gave them as gifts from the scraps.

My LQS owner told me when I tea dye not to use decaf tea. She said it didn't do as well. And she liked tea leaves better than bags. Otherwise she said to do it just like with any dye, put fabric in the mix and leave it until it is a shade darker than the color you want (because rinsing will take some color away). Rinse in clear water, and set with heat. I did what she said and got a great color.

Oh, I got some of those towels from Sam's. They don't have the same weave as the old feed sacks. They don't take color as easily when you dye them, either. Be sure you dampen them before you start.

I am now 75. I had the most beautiful feed sack dresses when I was little made from them. Mom and neighbors would swap around so they could come up with enough material alike to make a garment. I am hanging on to one sack now that my Mother in Law gave me, also have one with a printed doll on the cloth. I need to get it made up one of these days.

it is not really that easy..you need to know WHICH tea to use and how much..

for a yard of fabric you would need say 20 tea bags...place into a pot(not aluminum) with about 6 quarts of water..I use a stock pot with a steamer lining, makes it easy to keep the tea bags on the bottom and fabric on the top..

bring the water to a boil, place the fabric in and turn it off..allow to sit for about an hour... then remove and wring it out...I prefer line drying, but you can machine dry...when I line dry I then starch and iron before cutting!

just remember, that is only a staining..NOT a dying, in time it will wear off!

oh my...that would bring down the house for sure...

I love hearing the stories about the clothing made from feed sacks and I am sure my great grandmother's quilt was made from feed sacks. I would love to have some to mend an old quilt I wish to restore.

Just brew some tea and soak them.

I'm a sack collector and have found sacks used for flour, salt, alfalfa and clover seed, chicken mash, dog food, scratch feed, horse supplement, and sugar. Except for salt, these bags were large, 50 lbs or less. I have some beautiful (at least to me) coarse but closely woven bags that were 'returnables' which I think were sent to bakeries using large amounts of flour/sugar and then went back to the mill. Many were printed with a very attractive company logo and contents in two colors on natural fabric. The housewife could then wash/boil/bleach off the printing and have a nice piece of goods for whatever purpose--pillow slips, tea towels, underclothing, quilts. I'm sure if you tossed the flour sacks there would be a 'puff' of flour but not spillage as they were securely chain stitched. A lot less spillage than modern paper bags.

The all over printed feed sacks that were used for clothing were, in MHO, more coarse than regular dress goods and according to the literature of the time, dressing in feed sack material marked you as "country." The companies did their best, though, to produce attractive (for the time) patterns knowing that nice looking material could tilt sales in their favor.

The flour sacks I remember did not have labels printed on them. The labels were printed on paper that was glued to the fabric. A good soaking removed the label. And they made lovely clothes.

As for tea dyeing, just follow amma's instructions and you should be good. Let the sacks soak to the shade you like. You can always soak them again if you decide you want them darker after they are dried.

If there is a Cracker Barrel Old Country Store near you, look and see if they still have the cured hams for sale. They are/were sold in the printed cloth sacks. Make really cute toss pillows.

I have some, if I can get into the right box. They are stashed. I intend to make a quilt to remind me of the lady who sold them to me.

I will look this afternoon, and post pictures if I find them.

Where is this mill? State and city? I know there used to be one in Nebraska. Is it still the same?

As to the mill - I think it is in Humboldt, NE. I live less than 60 miles from there. If I watch, I can usually find flour in fabric sacks at the local grocery.

For information on feedsacks, there is this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvOM2Q7G2DQ

and this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iEoF...eature=related

Videos of Gloria Hall presenting a talk for Andover Schoolhouse. (I think that is a presentation for merchants who sell Andover fabric lines.) She gives a good explanation of the history of feed sacks and the development of fabric for the sacks. (They had to come up with good quality fabric to hold the products in the sacks. So, while the print may have been found only in the feed sack lines, the fabric was not as inferior as some may believe. It is not, however, like the quilting fabric we buy today. I think fabric quality continues to improve all the time.)

Printed sack pictures: Two of these are still stitched on the bottom and side.