I grew up on a chicken farm. Mama made our clothes from the feedsacks. I wore feedsack "drawers' till I started school. Mama's aunt bought me & my sister store bought panties.My brother got store bought underwear too.I found an old quilt top made with feedsacks & washed feedsacks for the back, at a yard sale.Sun bonnet Sue pattern.

I have some pieces of fabrics you might be able to use. They are some I saved from old aprons and some spokes from some antique Dresden Plate blocks that I bought on ebay. You can also purchase some small checked cotton gingham and use that for some. I think Joanns only carries the checked gingham in a cotton,blend but think I have seen 100% cotton at Hobby Lobby and online. Please send me an aside if you want to share a bit of the old fabrics I have.
I think that quilt is absolutely beautiful.

This is a great thread...thanks for all the stories

Do you ever go to ebay? Look up flour/feed sacks. There usually are tons of pictures of sacks,either opened or unopened for sale.

When my Aunt was a girl way back in the 20's she died her hair with coffee and tea, :?

I remember going to the feed store with my father and picking out the sacks that I liked. It took two sacks to make a gathered skirt!

My DM said her 'old-maid' great aunts rinsed their hair with tea after every shampoo, looked perfectly natural and never showed a grey hair. ;)

I mixed a home brew "suntan lotion" with instant tea one summer. It was the only summer I ever got a tan. LOL
The tea dyed my skin just enough to look like a natural tan. It didn't protect against sunburns.

You might use some of the reproduction prints in that dresdan plate you are working on. I like the antique green. I think Keepsake Quilting has some of the reproduction prints and some solids. Post a photo when you get it finished.

if you want a variety of colors and dying techniques go to ritdye,com - I happened on that site by accident and got so excited when I saw all info they had - have been making some of my own batiks

I found out the hard way that THIS - what you suggest above - is a critical step in the dyeing process to ensure the dye "sticks" rathers than runs out with the rinse water after a project is finished. Oy.