Early 50s here. My grandparents were city folk in the early marriage so no feedsacks. Besides they were not the type to tell family stories. Sad I missed out on so much family history.
I did spend my 5-11 years in AZ and we did have a woodstove, fireplace and tub in front of the fire for baths. lol People down the road had an outhouse still.We had indoor plumbing but no running water. So buckets it was. No one made quilts in my family although I do have a quilt I made from blocks I found in a bunch of fabric from my step great grandmother. Wish I had the story on those.

[quote=LoriEl]I didn't come along until the 60's but my mom remembers having dresses made for her with the feedsacks.[

I didn't come alone untill 1963 and I can remember my gm making mine and my sister's dresses out of feed sacks and some of our panties also slips too.We grew up very hard but had a wonderful GM.She is no longer with us today but in Heaven now.I really just wish I could thank her for all her hard work she did for us and other people also. I love U grandma in heaven.]

Thank you for sharing your story with us. I love stories from the 20's, 30's & 40's but was born in the early 50's of which I have no connection to.

I too am a 50;s baby. Gradma made we tops and bottoms
shorts to wera during th e summer.
It was always a joy to pick out " my" sack.
thanks for the memories

My sisters and I wore feed sack dresses (as did our mother and aunts) -- I was young enough not to be concerned about the source of the fabric! We also slept on sheets made from feedsacks--My aunt was very good at getting ALL the print out. Those sheets didn't wear out and we used them until well after the 2nd world war. (They were soft and comfortable to sleep on/under.) Part of getting them ready to use involved lye water. We also used them for dish towels. We did this quite a long time after the flowered sacks went out of production. My aunt used to tell stories about the depression years--mostly about how no one had anything, so everyone was "poor" together. However, my family were farmers so food was not an issue. Flour and sugar were purchased, but most everything else came from the farm. I also remember the boys were allowed to go barefoot to school. We girls always had shoes. And to think everything had to be starched and ironed--What a job!

I lived in Milwaukee during the 30's, no feed sacks but my mother made dresses and clothing for my sister and me. Mom made snowsuits out of men's overcoats for a dollar for other children. She could buy the fabric pictured on the patterns for dresses and we had matching outfits, one in red and one in blue usually. My sister and I learned to sew at the social center a half block from our house. A lady named Mrs. Brandt cut out doll clothes from scraps we brought from home. We had to set in sleeves, hem everything, make buttonholes, gored skirts, princess style dresses and even coats and caps for our dolls and all by hand. She folded the cloth and cut away armholes, necklines, and whatever, never using a pattern. We learned to do the same and I still have the box of clothing I made for my 18 inch doll. I didn't have a store bought coat till I was 12 or 13.
My sister and I each have a quilt made by our grandmother and a slip of paper where she wrote, "This quilt was made for grandaughter Carol (Lois) by her grandmother Sybilla Nickel in 1932". Embroidered blocks with flowers on them and hand quilted, mine is green and my sister's is blue.
We did many craft projects at the playground. Milwaukee had a socialist government and paid college graduates to teach at social centers. I even learned to tap dance and over 30 years later found a woman who was probably the teacher here in a different city.
We used the dime or quarters we earned to buy stamped embroidery goods and had our hope chests full of doilies, dresser scarves and embroidered dish towels. We learned to do all these things with the help of our mother and the teachers at the social center.

Carol J.

30's fabric! Not the era. My quilting teacher called them reproduction fabrics or repro's. I heard "retro". So, I go into the lqs and ask if they have any retro fabrics. They get this funny look on their faces, so I explained what I'm looking for. Now, they too call them retro's and I call them repro's. We always managed to meet somewhere in the middle.

I am from 1941 so I can't help you. If I was a 30's I probably couldn't remember any of that stuff anyway. My mother didn't quilt, only did our clothes, so we didn't even have scraps from the 30's.

Feed Bags now days. I have been making tote bags out of dog food bags and such. I raised chickens on a large scale for years and collect them and roosters and a gal at work brought me a chicken feed bag and I now have a real cute and strong tote from it. Did one for my boss with bird seed bag the orange one with a big red cardinal on it, easy and quick to do.
Trying to attach a picture and having trouble

My Dad worked for some "rich" folks in town years back in the 50's, believe or not they would buy huge bags of peanuts to feed the squirrels. The peanuts were placed in feed sacks. My Mom was a seamstress, she would make all of my p.j.'s using them.At the time I didn't like them....wish I had some now though!