I have a table cloth, and some old towels made from them. We used to have a dairy farm, and my late MIL gifted me with some. Wish now I had a lot of them!!

My DH (73) lived on a farm in MO and had 5 older sisters. He said that on Saturdays they would fight to see who would go to town with their father to get feed so that they would get to pick out their own prints on the feedsacks. I have several old quilts from the family and I believe they are made from feedsacks. Seems like the fabric is quite coarse though. My DH and I had chickens here on our little farm in the 70's and he was so happy to bring me home some feed in cloth printed feedsacks as we had two daughters and I sewed for them. But, the fabric was also very coarse and I did not use it but still have them in the closet. I remember sitting outside and using my seam ripper and opened them all up and shook out all of the chicken feed and shaking them really hard before bringing them into the house and tossing them in the washer. You just had to release a certain thread and pull it and the whole seam would pull out - very easy - much the same as on big bags of dog food nowdays.

I agree NikkiLu....I don't know - but I think the flour sack material that some people also remember and my Gram talked about too - was much finer cotton - so that the flour wouldn't leak out - the feed sacks do seem to be a courser cloth.

Hi QuiltnNan....recognizing them....honestly...the most telling thing...they are a large sack - kind of like a large pillow case - I think some of them might have had company names printed on the edges... but you also kinda recognize the old fabric that they are made of as being 30's or 40's era fabrics. Other than that - I am sure there are folks on the board who are true collectors and "experts" who would know much more.

I do remember the feed and flour sacks. All of my dresses were made from them when I was little and Mom used the scraps for quilts. Thanks for the memories.

What a treasure you have found. And what a bonus to know where they came from and who they belonged to. Enjoy your treasure trove. Remember to post pictures of your finished pieces!!

WOW - I did not know that a feed sack would be different fabric from a flour sack. Just asked my DH and he said that he remembers getting flour in white cloth sacks - about 25 pound bags. He said that they had an emblem on them from the company (?) and that his mother would bleach out the emblems. He said that the feed sacks held feed for the chickens - not the cows. They were in 100 pound bags - so they would have been quite large pieces of fabric. He said that they would get white feed sacks and his mother would make sheets out of them - seamed I am sure. They had 5 boys and 5 girls - so lots of beds that needed sheets. Very interesting topic!

thanks pennif

There are books written on the subject. Without seeing the holes for the stitching of the sack, I personally can't identify sack cotton. It is especially hard to tell for sure when looking at completed quilts. However, those who have studied the samples and seen many pictures can recognize the patterns of the prints.

It was interesting to me to find out that it was during Roosevelt's administration that the sizes of the sacks were standardized. Before the 1930's most of the sacks were plain with the company logo printed on them. Then many companies went with a paper label that could be removed and also came up with the pretty prints.

The Cotton Council printed booklets with ideas for using sacks in clothing and household linens. Commercial patterns also were sold.

I think it is a fun subject!

You are so lucky - I am very jealous!! Enjoy!!!