Flour sacks
08-23-2011, 12:17 PM
#51
Super Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Beautiful Briery Mountain in WV
Posts: 2,551
Originally Posted by Quilt Mom
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
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
08-23-2011, 12:45 PM
#52
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Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Northern Indiana
Posts: 2,679
Originally Posted by SharonTheriault
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.
Originally Posted by Ellen
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.
08-23-2011, 01:23 PM
#53
Junior Member
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Sheridan, Arkansas
Posts: 264
Originally Posted by Ann912
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.
08-23-2011, 01:49 PM
#54
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Sulphur Springs, Tx.
Posts: 878
Originally Posted by Patti Mahoney
Originally Posted by Quilt Mom
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.
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.
08-23-2011, 01:52 PM
#55
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: North Kansas City, MO
Posts: 561
Many of the calico prints that we used so much of in our quilts are reproductions of flour sack designs that feed companys used to entice husbands to buy their brand, knowing the wives would put them to good use - it worked. I understand many husbands were sent back to the feed store, because they bought sacks that didn't match (even then we were a bossy group, I love it) LOL
08-23-2011, 06:32 PM
#56
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Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: sw MO
Posts: 52
One of our friends worked in his Fathers feed store with his brothers, He has told of having to move 20 bags of chicken feed to find some lady enough matching fabric to make a garment. He was glad when they put the feed in paper sacks.
08-23-2011, 06:36 PM
#57
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Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Beautiful Briery Mountain in WV
Posts: 2,551
I have never bought flour in cloth sacks, only the 25lb paper bags. I remember early in my marriage my father commenting on the amount of flour I was using and he said the bag didn't have 25lbs, it had 24lbs. I showed him the label with 25lbs. He remembered flour in cloth bags that did not have 25 pounds. The measurement had to do with the number of pounds packed in barrels!! He was born in 1912 and lived through some tough times in a large family. I didn't understand then and I still don't but I believe him.
I looked around and see what I found from the State of Mississippi Code Weights & Measures:
Flour, in barrels, per barrel ........................... 196 pounds net
Flour, in half barrels ................................... 98 pounds net
Flour, in one-fourth barrel sacks ........................ 48 pounds net
Flour, in one-eighth barrel sacks ........................ 24 pounds net
Looks like Daddy knew what he was talking about.
I believe flour came in 25lb sacks. Can't remember for sure, but I know they were pretty large. We only made a major shopping trip to town once a month. We kids were allowed to go to the movies while the Folks shopped. Cost of a movie was a whopping 7cents per kid! Dad would pick up anything we ran out of when he went to the gin, or hauling cattle to sale barn. This was a time of rationing, so we were pretty careful about how fast we used some things up.
Flour, in barrels, per barrel ........................... 196 pounds net
Flour, in half barrels ................................... 98 pounds net
Flour, in one-fourth barrel sacks ........................ 48 pounds net
Flour, in one-eighth barrel sacks ........................ 24 pounds net
Looks like Daddy knew what he was talking about.
08-23-2011, 07:53 PM
#58
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Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Headed home
Posts: 2,372
Originally Posted by Greenheron
Looks like Daddy knew what he was talking about.
08-23-2011, 08:29 PM
#59
Junior Member
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Lake Havasu City Az
Posts: 196
When I was just a girl in the 30's my mother made dresses and panties to match for all four of us girls, My dad was a miner in the foothills of Calif, working at a gold mine for $30.00 a month, so mama made our clothes from the flour sacks that the flour came in, I have a pillow case full of the old original flour sack material , plan on making a log cabin quilt out of it as well as using muslin for it too :lol:
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