05/29/2023
The column this week is for the ladies, although there may be men out there who also remember the times we'll talk about. It was a LONG time ago and I suspect women remember those days far more clearly. Let's remember "Feed Sack Clothes" during the Great Depression and WWII. One hundred years ago milling companies saw a way to increase their profits while helping the American farmer. Specifically, they could reach out to the farmer's wife. They sold feed, flour, and wheat which initially were always sold in large barrels. But transporting the products back home was tough as the barrels were very heavy. So the farmers started making their own fabric sacks to get their purchases back to the farm.
With the invention of the sewing machine, fabric feed sacks became much more popular and by the 1900's commodity bags ranging in weight from 2-49 lbs were standard. In the beginning, all bags were plain fabric in white or brown with the company name stamped on the front. At that time, farm women carefully washed these bags, soaking them long enough to remove the ink stamp and the stitches and then recycled them into rags, dish towels, and aprons. Sugar and flour had a much lighter texture so those bags were the first to be made of finer, lighter fabric and women transformed them into underwear, dresses, children's clothes, dish towels, pillowcases, bedsheets, chair covers, bags, and curtains. Some even made baby diapers of lightweight fabrics. Many of the newly recycled items were decorated with rickrack, embroidery, ribbons, and buttons to make them most appealing.
For the manufacturers, recycling was a marketing strategy. Once they realized that farm women were already utilizing their bags in the home they ramped up the process by printing much more attractive bags/sacks and using finer fabrics. Until that time, rural women were never considered much of a marketing target---that was reserved for women in the cities with better income But the financial crises of WWII and the Great Depression changed everything, Now rural women were on the radar of these companies. These women represented a brand new market The women also felt newly empowered. They could carefully shop for chicken feed, flour and sugar by choosing only those fabrics/patterns on bags in which they were interested. Milling companies engaged in active competition trying to attract more women to their items.
Better yet, companies started printing patterns on the sacks for doll clothes, and children's and women's clothes. Booklets, magazines, and newspapers with patterns and ideas to encourage home sewing projects started appearing. How many remember CAPPER'S WEEKLY? My Mother combed through that publication with a fine-toothed comb and I remember a number of patterns she got from there. Some of the manufacturers were so clever that they actually hemmed the sacks before being stitched shut so that all a woman had to do was remove the outer stitching and with a pattern on the front start sewing as soon as they washed the bag. Plus, the bags were closed with chain stitching so that simply pulling the string would open up the bag And, yes, they saved the string as well. Eventually, the National Cotton Council and Textile Mfg Association partnered with Simplicity and McCall Patterns to promote the sale of feed sacks. They also hired internationally known textile designers to make sure that their sacks offered the most up-to-date prints and conducted routine surveys to make sure that rural homemakers could get what they wanted.
Farm women traded with other women to get the fabric they wanted. Some even traded baked goods to get another bag or two to finish a project on which they had run out of fabric. If they simply could not get enough of a particular pattern they would start cutting the fabric into squares for quilts. It is important to note that many farmwives rarely got to town, They were home taking care of the children and tending to the home and garden. So they often gave specific instructions to their husbands on what to buy. Often they sent along a small sample to be sure he got the right bags.
Feed sack clothes began to disappear in the late 50s as more and more large-scale chicken farming arrived and manufacturers started packing their products in paper bags to accommodate the huge amount of feed required for these corporate farms. Still, it was a time like none other in our history and I know that many still remember those days. I wonder how many still have something made from a feed sack? Very possibly there are some rag rugs around made from scraps of feed bag fabrics.
But farm women came into their own at that time. Professor Kendra Brandes of Bradley University said "In terms of fashion history, this alone is a truly unique example of the farm wife influencing the 'high end' of the fashion process. Sales of feed bags depended heavily on the desires of the farm wife and manufacturers scrambled to meet those demands. The American farm wife became the target market."
Last, I think it is important to realize that we did not invent recycling---it is not something new although it is as important as ever. Our ancestors recycled EVERYTHING, simply for survival. They could not afford to waste anything and they found new and clever ways to re-use virtually all the things in their lives. It often was their lifeline. We need to thank them and take some lessons from them.
Shirley Lorenz
