Feed sacks were cotton sacks and bags that once contained all manner of edible items, from sugar and flour to chicken feed and rice. Initially, the jackets were completely white, but they were printed with advertising ink that could (with a lot of effort) be washed out. Grocery sacks were not printed in the wonderful colorful patterns we love so much today until the 1920s, when Percy Kent Co introduced patterned sacks, offering home crafters attractive fabrics that they could recycle at home. This savvy marketing tactic helped boost sales, making that company one of the largest of its kind in the US.
The trend to recycle these feed sacks continued through the Depression of the 1930s and the war years of the 1940s. Later, paper and plastic sacks began to replace cloth sacks, although these continued to be produced until the 1960s, but in much more limited quantities.
These colorful vintage feed sacks were produced so that when the side seam was unstitched, the resulting usable piece of fabric was just over a square yard, so three feed sacks were often enough to make a grown woman’s dress. . Once manufacturers realized the popularity of this vintage fabric, they competed to provide the most attractive and therefore most desirable prints. Husbands would be sent to the store with strict orders about which jackets to choose, and if his wife wanted a new dress, he would have to come home with three of the same jackets!
Old cloth feed sacks were sometimes produced in solid colours, those of red, lavender, brown, and pastel pinks and yellows, although these are becoming rarer. Feed sacks were often printed with floral designs, and other patterns include stripes, dots, animals, and geometric shapes. Since they are pure cotton, they are wonderful to use in your current projects: patchwork, quilting, and appliqué are three possible techniques to use.
The feedsacks were made by over 40 companies and it has been said that over 15,000 patterns exist. Magazines and pattern companies began to understand how popular this sackcloth had become and published patterns to allow their readers to use sackcloth prints to their best advantage. A 1942 estimate showed that three million women and children of all income levels wore printed food garments. Today we can continue to enjoy these wonderful and vibrant fabrics by incorporating them into our sewing projects.
