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May 12, 2015
When they realized women were using sacks to make clothes for their kids, flour mills started using flowered fabric
By the late 1800s, textile mills were producing strong, inexpensive cotton, which quickly usurped canvas as the preferred material for feedsacks. Farmer’s wives took advantage of this new source of essentially free fabric by turning the empty cotton sacks into everything from dishrags to dresses. Some feed companies, alerted to this reuse of their bags, began to print their sacks in gaily colored patterns—since it usually took more than one bag to make a dress, the idea was to give the farmer an incentive to keep buying their products.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at May 12, 2015 7:13 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
I didn't wear flour sack dresses, but all our dishtowels were flour sacks first. It was a tight finely-woven cotton, soft and durable. I first learned to sew by hand-hemming those flour sack dish towels.
Posted by: Fontessa ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://americandigest.org/sidelines/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 12, 2015 11:52 AM
Back when marketing wasn't about just sticking it in your neck and stealing your wallet.
Posted by: ghostsniper at May 12, 2015 7:28 PM