Nancy Ingham

I was born in 1946, and did not have knowledge of grain or flour sacks, but some of these posts have sure brought back memories. I was one of ten children and we shared our home with my grandfather, uncle, and great aunt. Mom didn’t make our clothes but would alter them to pass down from one child to another. Being the third girl from the oldest I wore lots of hand-me-downs. My aunt made the quilts and we used them piled one upon another to keep us warm on the long bitter cold Massachusetts winters. We had no central heating, no hot water, and a water closet over the toilet in the bathroom. Mom had to heat the water on the stove to wash the dishes, do laundry and our “Saturday night baths”. Mom would stick three to four girls in the bath at a time and we would play until the water was cold and our fingers shriveled up. We had a centrally located (living room) coal stove and a wood burning stove in the kitchen. My aunt made the best tasting toast on that wood stove. Grandpa’s favorite breakfast was bread broken up in a cup of tea with milk. I understand that the habit came from the depression years. We always walked to school (over a mile) in freshly starched dressed, all six of us girls. But getting dressed in the morning was tricky as during the winter we had to grab our clothes and run downstairs to dress by the fire. We could actually draw and write with our fingernails into the ice that formed on the inside of our second floor windows. I remember watching from the window at dusk when the gentleman would go up and down the street lighting the gas street lights. We had a milkman. Bread man and ragman that made the rounds. In the ‘dog days’ of August, the milkman would chop off big blocks of ice and we kids would sit on the steps sucking on the ice with the water running down our arms.
Thanks for the memories and those that have shared their pictures of quilts! Beautiful!

scrappy happy

I'm a mid 40 girl and I remember mom making my undies out flour sacks,can remember going to the store that had everything in it , a general store I guess u would call it.But I would be able to pick put the sack of flour I liked. I can remember washing the flour out of the sacks , seam like I could never get it all out, bet mom did tho. I also remember waiting for every for her to get all the flour used up out of that 50lb sack .She took old wool coats to make blankets out of. She would make her own patterns out of paper.I got to use my brothers and dads old sock to make my doll clothes out of. I learned to sew on a treadle machine.
I can remember her milking the goat in the corner of the house, so i'm thinking she must of used the milk to cook with and for us to drink. My dad would go out with the team of horse and make plup wood to sell and fire wood to sell.

redkimba

I came along in the early 70s. My grandparents grew up in that era, but they didn't talk much about the fabric.

Having to eat biscuits & gravy for every meal for a week was mentioned...

Eileen

I didn't come along until '57, but my mom made my older sister & I play cloths from feed sacks that my Grandma had from either cow or chicken feed. Grandma had dish towels, aprins & kitchen table cloths made from feed sacks. Grandma didn't quilt but did her sewing on a tredle singer. My sister has that machine. Grandma did save some feed sacks & gave them to my mom who divided them up between my younger sister & myself. What I got is the ugliest green print. So it sits in my stash. Don't know what I'd do with it yet.

FroggyinTexas

I was born in 1936 to parents who lost everything they owned when their farm failed during the years of the Dust Bowl. Even after WWII started and Daddy went to work in the oil fields of W Texas, Mama got feed sacks and flour sacks and made my dresses and my brother's shirts from them. One of the prettiest outfits was a two piece suit. The top was gorgeous green and the skirt was gorgeous white.

Listening to Mama and Daddy tell stories about the Great Depression from 1929 until WWII began made me appreciate being a child of the 1940's and 1950's.

Seeing fabric reproductions from the '30's reminds me that Mama said she would go into a store and see fabric that she would have liked to buy, but at 10 cents a yard, it cost too much.

Daddy was blackballed because he took part in an attempt to unionize dairy workers, who made $30 a month and lived in a rent free house in return for 14 hour work days seven days a week. They milked cows by hand in those days and eventually his fingernails fell off as result of the work.

When WWII began, Mama went to work at an Army Air Force base where she painted the fabric on the wings of planes that were destined to be placed on air craft carriers.
The department she worked in was called the "paint and dope" department.

Then she still couldn't buy fabric at any price because of its scarcity and rationing.

All y'all can have all you want of those "good ole days." I'll take the luxuries and abundance along with the problems of the present. froggyintexas

carolynjo

I, too wore feed sack dresses and skirts and frequently went with my mother to help choose the "fabric." One of the funniest occurrences in using feed sack material was when I had 3 brothers all in the navy in WWII. My mother made each of the brothers 2 pairs of boxer shorts from feed sack fabrics, featuring a girl in a bath tub, covered by bubbles of all colors. Only the head and shoulders showed. The brothers were razzed and envied by their ship mates, but they enjoyed their notoriety!

Auntie

I don't remember the 30s being born in 37, but during the 40s my mom made my dresses, panties and even our bedsheets from feedsacks. My memories are all good because I never knew just hard my parents had it. Living on a farm we always had beef, pork, chickens and fresh eggs. The day FDR died I remember my dad putting his hand on my shoulder and saying "our president is dead". My memories are happy ones even tho we were at war. I had three uncles and one aunt in the Navy and one aunt in the Army. I remember what happy times when they came home. I could go on and on! Thanks for reading my memories.

Marge L.

I lived through the great depression. Money was tight for most everyone and you made do with whatever you could dream up. Mom made sheets and pillowcases from the white feed sacks after bleaching out all of the lettering. When the window shades went bad, feed sacks were used for that, too. They were cut to fit, hemmed and rolled on the rollers. When they were soiled, they were taken off the roller, laundered, starched & ironed and rolled back on. Nothing went unused and was repurposed if at all possible. Those were the days. Lots of memories, some good, some bad. Just glad I became old enough to see the tremendous changes that have been made. Who would have thought that it could all happen.

wolflady

My dear mother made my sisters cloths all out of feed sacks, even our sunday dressie dresses.
Made my dads shirsts also.
Wolflady

Bonnie

Thanks for sharing.