Feed Sack Quilts and Fabrics: Spoiler alert—Your feed sack quilt was probably not made in the 1930s
This is my 4th blog post in a series about 1930s quilts. This week I’m going to share three books that have great information about feed sack fabrics. The first two books specifically discuss the history of feed sack fabrics, where they came from, what they were used for, etc.
This process really debunked most of the understanding I thought I had about “feed sack” quilts.
The term “feed sack fabric” should really be more accurately called cotton sack fabric. In addition to animal feed, items such as flour and sugar, among other things, were also sold in cotton sacks.
Until 1937 animal feed and consumables cotton bags were white/cream. People did use cotton bags for home goods and clothing, but if they wanted something colorful, they would dye the feed sacks. There was a bag company that printed cotton sacks with a gingham print in the 1920s, but they were not in widespread use.
The Percy Kent Bag company spearheaded the printing of fashion prints on their cotton bags in 1937. These bags were called "dress print bags” and the majority of them were used during and after World War II.
Brightly colored “feed sack” prints are not Depression Era.
This is a lot to take in. Let’s look at some of the interesting outtakes from the three books we’re looking at. We’ll start with Feed Sacks: The Colourful History of a Frugal Fabric. This book is eye candy, giving you hundreds of images of authentic dress print bags as well as quilts, garments, and ephemera related to dress print bag fabric.
The next book is Cotton & Thrift by Marian Montgomery. Cotton & Thrift has the most detailed discussion of feed sack fabric history. It also has pictures of hundreds of feed sack prints as well as garments, quilts, and ephemera.
The final book is specifically about the Great Depression. Soft Covers for Hard Times by Merikay Waldvogel. This is a wonderful book covering the history of quiltmaking during the period of 1920-1940. One of the most interesting chapters in this book covers a series of quilts called the TVA Quilts (Tennessee Valley Authority Quilts). Ruth Clement Bond, the wife of a TVA manager working with Black TVA Dam workers designed this applique figure called the Black Power Quilt. There are at least three quilts from Black quilters that feature this applique.
To finish up this blog post. I want to mention a fabulous video series called the “Six Know-It-Alls”. This series of videos features 6 quilt historians: Lynne Bassett, Barbara Brackman, Debby Cooney, Alden O’Brien, Julie Silber, and Merikay Waldvogel. If you are a quilt nerd, you will love this. They each bring an antique or vintage quilt, and then the six of them discuss it. In the most recent episode (episode 5 as of this blog post), Merikay Waldvogel specifically discusses the problematic terminology around feed sacks and Depression era quilts.
List of Resources
Cotton & Thrift: Feed Sacks and the Fabric of American Household by Marian Ann J. Montgomery
Feed Sacks: The Colourful History of a Frugal Fabric by Linzee Kull McCray
Patchwork Souvenirs of the 1933 World’s Fair by Merikay Waldvogel and Barbara Brackman
Soft Covers for Hard Times: Quiltmaking & the Great Depression by Merikay Waldvogel
The Kansas City Star Quilts Sampler: 60+ Blocks from 1928 to 1961 by Barbara Brackman