Flour Sack Towels Through the Years by Pam Crooks

 

Among the gifts I received for Christmas this year were flour sack towels. Three of them, to be exact.  Two were sweetly embroidered for my husband and me by our young granddaughters, and the third was screen-printed with a Christmas-themed gingerbread man with a stack of books from my sister.

With this towel came a slip of paper noting the history and benefits of flour sack towels. Of course, I suspect we all have a flour sack towel or two in our kitchen drawers right now, and we all probably have a pretty good idea how the towels came to be, but I especially found interesting the foresightedness of feed companies that led to their practical use and popularity.

I didn’t realize just how widespread that popularity was!

In 1850 or so, flour was shipped and sold in big wooden barrels to the general stores. Cumbersome and not particularly sanitary, right?  About this time, cotton was more easily harvested and became plentiful. Grain mills took to shipping the flour in thick-weaved cotton bags strong enough to hold fifty pounds and later, one hundred pounds.  Soon, sugar, animal feed, fertilizer, seeds, etc., followed in those bags, and it wasn’t long until frugal housewives, loathe to throw anything useful away, found new ways to use them.

Towels, aprons, diapers, bedding, and all sorts of clothing were just the beginning.  But alas, who wanted to wear a shirt or a dress with the flour company’s logo branded across the front?  Housewives determinedly removed the labels with rounds of soaking and washing with bleach and lye soap.  After the chain stitching was pulled out of the side of the bag, the cotton could be cleaned, starched, and pressed.

(These leggings were made by a Lakota woman sometime in the 1920s using leather and dyed porcupine quills on the lower half visible below a dress. On the upper part which would be hidden by the dress, she used flour sacks from Rex Flour.)

Eventually, seeing the growing popularity of up-cycling the feed bags and seeing a potential rise in sales, manufacturers switched to paper labels.  Housewives found removing the glue-backed labels with kerosene much easier but still a chore. The feed companies and flour mills took continued compassion (with an eye toward higher profits, of course) on housewives and began to print their logos using water-soluble vegetable inks.

Popularity for the bags soared in the 1920s when the cotton mills hit upon the idea of producing fabrics in colorful flower prints, designs for pillowcases and curtains, embroidery patterns, and even patterns for children’s clothing, teddy bears, dolls, and so on.

How fun, right?

(Isn’t this a pretty pillowcase?  Sacks were sewn with string and a large needle, and when the sacks were taken apart, small holes were left behind. Can you see the stitching on the edge of this pillowcase?)

Women had to compete for the bags, often bringing their able-bodied sons or husbands with them to the store to maneuver through a pile of heavy sacks to get to the bottom where the choice prints could be found. Rural wives, of course, had an advantage of plenty of bags on hand to feed their livestock. Others had to collect, save, and trade to have enough yardage for their projects.  Others bought larger bags called “empties” from bakers for only pennies a piece.

One 100-pound bag of feed netted a yard of 44 inch fabric. You can see how many bags would be needed for a large project or multiple clothing items.

Even President Calvin Coolidge, known for his frugality, benefited from the women’s enthusiastic creativity by receiving a gift of handmade flour-sack pajamas. It took five flour sacks to make the pajamas and were a show of support for his economic program.

During World War II, due to a shortage of cotton fabric, the government strongly encouraged use of the bags. Women sold their surplus bags for extra cash. After the war ended, rural women developed a sense of fashion from their frugality, and national sewing contests were held so they could show off their skills, netting prizes like expensive sewing machines, automobiles, or even a trip to Hollywood!

It’s easy to see how the cotton bags boosted the cotton industry.  Once the sacks were cleaned and readied for use, there were as comparable in quality and design as any new percale sold in stores, thanks to top textile designers from New York City and Europe who jumped on board to produce designs with colorfast dyes.  One of the earliest collections was by the Percy Kent Bag Company, still in business today in Missouri and have even done bag work for Disney films.

(Staley Milling Company of St. Louis and Kansas City was one of Percy Kent’s biggest customers. Here are packaged animal feeds in Percy Kent dress-print sacking.)

I don’t know that flour sack towels are used much to sew clothing these days, but they are the absolute best for drying dishes and being used in other ways in the kitchen.  They’re fun to use in crafts, too, like stamping, painting with paint pens, screen and digital printing, all things those 19th century grain mills and the cotton industry never dreamed of!

To win a set of these pretty flour sack towels, tell me how and if you use flour sack towels for anything besides drying dishes!

 

 

Have you gotten your copy of JOY TO THE COWBOY yet?  Book #2 of the Christmas Stocking Sweethearts series by the fillies!

She was sunshine. He was clouds.  Until a sprig of mistletoe changed everything.

Griff Marcello must live with the shame of the crime he once committed for his mobster father.  As he grows into a man, he’s found security as a cowboy living in Glory Hill, Nebraska, but the memory of his sin never leaves him.

Joyanna Hollinger is devoted to the community of Glory Hill, and with Christmas approaching, her plans for a special Christmas Eve service consumes her. All her efforts are falling into place–until she loses a key part of the celebration.

When Griff receives an unexpected gift from his former piano teacher, he never thinks her kindness will fill him with the spirit of Christmas, even when Joyanna needs him most.

Could the simplicity of a hand-stitched stocking and the Christmas carol tucked within chase away the clouds in his heart and warm him from the sunshine of Joyanna’s love?

#kindleunlimited

AMAZON

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Pam has written 30 romances, most of them historical westerns, but she's proud of her contemporary sweet romances featuring the Blackstone Ranch series published by Tule Publishing, too! Stay up on the latest at www.pamcrooks.com

102 thoughts on “Flour Sack Towels Through the Years by Pam Crooks”

    • Glad you enjoyed the blog, Denise. The nice thing about quilts is they are a good way to use up little pieces of scraps or small amounts of yardage and make them into something colorful. I can envision women from years ago cutting around stains and tears in those feed sacks as they made their quilts, can’t you?

  1. I use the sacks for hand towels and decorating with seasonal prints. My mother made quilts, clothing, towels, sheets, aprons, straining cloths for milk, etc. from flour and feed sacks. I still have some of them, including some of the laundered sacks.

    • Wow, Janice!! Your mom and you were true flour sack fans! I read an article where the author’s mother made sheets out of the sacks during the war to save her good percale (at the government’s urging). She complained about all the seams in the sheets and how they were scratchy. LOL. I imagine so – it’d take alot of feed sacks to make a sheet or two!

      • It did take a lot of sacks to make sheets. Mom made a flat seam where they were sewn, one side trimmed, the other side turned under around the first, and sewn again, so they weren’t scratchy. My mom was a child in the depression in a rural, mountain area and knew how to “make do.” We lived on a small farm, so we had plenty of free feed and flour sacks.

        • Hmm. Your description of the seams, Janice, sounds like a French seam. If I’m right, your mom was smart to make the sheets that way. Yes, no scratchiness, and with a professional look besides!

  2. I use them when bringing produce in from the garden..to carry, to wipe or dry off produce..keep flower stems moist after cutting.

    • Yes, Kate! I love it. Most towels are 30 x 30 inches, so they will indeed be able to hold produce after picking. Then just gather up the corners and head into the kitchen, right? 🙂

  3. Good morning Pam! Thank you for this history on the flour sacks. I’ve seen them in old quilts, pillow cases, and aprons. And many as dish towels. I enjoyed the stocking Christmas book! The whole series, in fact!

    Many blessings to you and yours!

    • Tracy, you are just the sweetest. Always. I was truly amazed at how the textile companies made such beautiful fabrics for those feed sacks. They had incredible vision, yet it seems such a shame to throw those bags into the back of a wagon or pile them onto a warehouse or dirty floor, doesn’t it? 🙂 Yet the bags endured – and so did the women who used them!

  4. I received embroidered flour sack towels from my grandmother as a wedding present. I use them when I roll out pie crust or when I roll out yeast dough or cookie dough. Love them! They last a long time. I started with 4. I still have left after 47 years of marriage. I think of my Gma Rose every time I use one.

    • Aw, Laurie – what a wonderful gift from your grandma! Those are truly the BEST gifts ever. So much time and love she put into those towels for you, and I love how you’ve taken such good care of them aftere 47 years!

      I’ve never thought of using them to roll out a pie crust or cookie dough! (I have a pastry cloth I use) but I’m going to try a towel next time since it’s bigger and will collect all that flour off the counter, too. Ha!

  5. I have used flour sack towels for a few different things. They make excellent bags for produce such as potatoes and onions as they allow some air circulation without exposing the contents to light. I have made what I call farmers’ market tote bags, throw pillow covers and many other items. I learned all about flour sacks from my Grandma, whose family owned a farm. And yes, she and her sisters did use them for clothing too.

  6. Old flour sack “T” towels seemed to never wear out! So, I would cut them in quarters and use them as dust rags. Shame…shame. They also worked good to polish my mom’s nickel plated silverware.

    Such a great blog Pam. And, I loved Griff’s story. The book cover is endearing too. Love your books. I know, I keep telling you that!

    • Good morning, Kathy! No shame here! Using them in other ways is just a new way of prolonging their usefulness. We have a lot of windows in our house, and they’re great for window washing. Not streaky and they don’t leave lint behind.

      I never get tired of hearing you say kind things about my books – Griff’s or otherwise!!!!!

  7. I use plain white ones in my craft room to clean messes and to wipe ink off of stamps without leaving lint. I use pretty ones in the kitchen and I love to line bread baskets with them.

  8. I just use them as hand towels for the kitchen. They are good for covering my sourdough as it rises.

  9. I use them for drying dishes, and as a decorative towel in my kitchen if it’s a Holiday print.

    For the towels that start to wear out or get dingy over the years, I use them for dusting and polishing my Cowboy boots.

    • Yes, polishing shoes!! Good mention, Melinda. Now that I think of it, my dad used to polish our shoes regularly with shoe polish, and he used squares of flour sack. No cowboy boots in my family, but the polishing would work just as well.

    • Aw, I wish we all wore aprons like our grandmothers did. I can’t even remember my farm-wife-grandmother NOT wearing an apron unless she went to church. Flour sacks certainly fit all the requirements for one!

  10. Mine have been used as dish towels, craft purposes, and multi use tote bags. They are so strong and durable.

    • They are strong and durable, indeed. If only they lived on forever. Some of mine that were embroidered (and those of my granddaughters) always make me sad when the towel wears out eventually. So much love went into that embroidering.

  11. When I was young my grandmothers wore aprons made from Flour Sacks and they were sturdy and last forever.

    • Interesting for a table cloth. Like sheets, probably multiple seams, right? Boy, the women would have to grab those feed bags in matching fabrics in a hurry in order to make big projects. I saw a picture where four sisters all wore dresses of the same fabric. Maybe they lived on a farm and had stacks of all the same feed bags!

  12. My grandma and her sisters remembered wearing flour sack dresses! But nowadays, my family just uses the flour-sack towels for dish drying or other needed uses around the kitchen. 😀

  13. What a great article. My mom told me she used to wear dresses made from flour sacks. My grandma made aprons also.

    • I don’t think there was much shame in recycling feed bags for clothing, Linda, only practicality since the fabrics were designed professionally, and the durability of the cloth was excellent. As long as the fabric didn’t have a brand name on it, right? LOL

    • Oh, I hope you keep that old apron, Bridget. It truly is a part of our American history!

      Boy, all these mentions of aprons makes me want to go out and make one!

  14. I use flour sack fabric on our picnic table. These came from my Iowa farmer in-laws. We also have a quilt my father-in-law made using feed sack fabric.

    • Oh, perfect for the picnic table, Molly!! Who cares if the pieces are mismatched, right? LOL. And even if they were matched, the table cloth is a practical way to use the feed sacks without having to be too fussy.

      Your father-in-law made a quilt? Very cool – and good for him!

  15. Good morning, I remember my mom and my grandmother making aprons , dish towels and even pillowcases. Unfortunately I dont know what ever happened to them, maybe they just got worn out. 🙁 I really enjoyed this post, Thank you so much for bringing back so many awesome memories. Have a great day and a great weekend.

    • Thanks for sharing, Alicia. Yes, there are so many things from our childhoods that are just gone, not only physically but mentally. But I’m glad the flour sack memories stuck with you.

  16. The last time I had some I used them only for drying dishes. I haven’t seen any around for awhile.

  17. Brings back fond memories. My mother always saved “feed” sacks to make our clothes. I am the youngest of 7 so she did whatever she could to make ends meet. Our small neighborhood grocer would save bags for her that matched some she already had in order to have enough fabric to make a garment. Daddy would take the one she had to the store to match and Mr. Costner would somehow mark the ones to save for mother. I still have a blouse she made from one. It is all faded out but I remember it. She also used the plain white flour sacks for tying around the top of the churn while waiting to be churned into butter. One she used to strain the milk through also. I have been collecting the print feed sacks for awhile now and will be making a quilt top from them. I also use a white flour sack as a pressing cloth when ironing. They are good for so many things. Thanks for the history on them.

  18. Ready all the other posts reminded me that when mother passed away in 1989, we found feed sacks she had saved and there were enough for each of the 7 of us to have two matching sacks. So special.

    • So-o special, indeed. How wonderful you all recognized the importance of them. Someone without your childhood might have just given them away. You all were meant to have them!

  19. Pam,

    What an interesting post! Thanks for giving us the history and I enjoyed the photos very much. I have a plain white one my mom embroidered as a young girl. She was born in 1915 and she thought she might have worked on it in about 1925. She used it as a dish towel but after she died I put it into an embroidery hoop and keep it out so it looks like someone could pick it up and start stitching. You can definitely tell it’s from a child and I like seeing it.

    • What a great idea to display it in an embroidery hoop, Rachel! Your mother would surely have loved that you did.

      I agree about liking to see a child’s work from their little hands. That’s exactly how my husband and I feel about the ones are granddaughters made for us.

  20. I haven’t used them for anything else, though you’ve given me ideas! I can’t sew, though I could use them in an embroidery project. What a great gift you received!!

    • I agree, Trudy! Truly a great gift from our granddaughters.

      My goodness, I’m amazed at the ladies here who have shared their memories. I love it, love it!

  21. I use them daily for anything I need them for from cleaning rags, cleaning mirrors, I use them to clean the inside of my car, I use them when I’m gardening to wipe my hands, these are very versatile. I also of course use them for drying dishes! My grandmother used them to make her aprons, she used to get hot pots and pans out of the oven, handkerchiefs, anything she could think of to do with them. She also made my Mom’s dresses, and she made my Mom’s kitten a pillow and blanket out of them as the kitten slept in a little bed she made beside my Mom’s bed!

    • Oh, my goodness, Sheila. I think between you and your grandmother, you have all your flour sack towel options covered. 🙂

      Super cuite story about the kitten’s pillow and blanket. That’s a new one for me! Thanks for sharing!

  22. Our feed sacks were made of burlap and my sister and I made drawstring handbags from them lined with fabric left from some other project. We did have some corn seed sacks that were cotton and heavier than flour sacking. My mom made a laundry bag from one of them for me to take to college. The seed variety was printed on it so I always kept that turned inside:). One of the first dresses I remember from my childhood was one my dad’s aunt made for me from flour sacking. She had no children of her own and made dresses for all three of us girls. We were all under five at that time so each dress didn’t take much fabric. I too have used sacking for dish towels, pastry cloth, aprons and dust cloths. There was a time when our girls were younger that one of the regional flour mills used printed fabric bags again. I did use some of those to make summer tops for the girls.

    • Such fun memories, Alice. I’m not familiar with burlap feed sacks. Maybe they were made from a thick canvas type of fabric?

      All these stories y’all are sharing with us truly proves how popular and necessary those sacks were. The cotton mills surely deserve a gold star for thinking to make them out of pretty and sturdy fabrics. Hopefully, the profits came with the popularity!

  23. Thanks for sharing all of this wonderful history. I remember my grandmother and great grandmother telling me about flour sacks and what they would do with them. I have some that are regulars in my kitchen.

  24. I don’t have any of these towels, but I would love to, they are very pretty. I would use them in the kitchen.

  25. I don’t have any, but I’ve heard my grandmother made dresses from them for my mother and her sisters.

  26. Sorry I missed this yesterday. I do have some flour sack towels that were one of my grandmothers. You are right, they do dry dishes nicely. I didn’t realize the story of flour sacks here in the US. When I was in the Peace Corps, i learned that the rice and animal feed came in sacks printed with designs that could be used for making clothing. I have a few pieces of clothing made from feed/rice sacks that I had made when I was over there. It is a smart way to recycle something that is needed for a different purpose.
    More recently, some feed sacks are being made from a plastic material. Some enterprising women have started a cottage industry to repurpose these bags to make large weekender type bags, tote bags, and purses. Unfortunately, last I saw, the company making the feed bags has not been printing nice patterns on them. The bag I have has the specifications for the fish food it contained.

    • Good morning, Pat! I missed your visit on Thursday. 🙂 But I’m glad you stopped by today.

      The Peace Corps would be an ideal opportunity back then to use up feed bags as members worked with the poor farmers. And I can envision the plastic material you mentioned that is being used nowadays. Not particularly recyclable, I don’t suppose, and yes, those specifications would be impossible to remove. An up-cycling opportunity ruined!

      • A friend of ours makes shopping/tote bags from the plastic feed sacks and sells them. She often uses the ones with cute pictures of cats, dogs, sheep, calves and horses. One of her customers wanted the red and white Purina sacks because her dad had worked for Purina Feeds.

  27. I’m a big crafter and I definitely use them for crafts. They make great tote bags and I also use them for pillow covers, valance, chair seat covers or even wall art. I of course Use them for drying dishes. I certainly would love to win those pretty towels. Thank you very interesting article.

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