I had always wanted to use some feed sacks in my sewing projects. I love the idea of them: in a nutshell, from the 1850s in the USA, the cheap availability of cotton combined with the invention of sewing machines that could make sturdy bags meant that cotton bags came to be used as goods containers instead of barrels.
Thrifty housewives re-used the bags in the home and colourful prints became a part of the product marketing. There's a great article about the history of feed sacks on the Etsy blog,
here.
As you may know, I love the idea of re-using materials! I'd so much rather re-use something than buy new: I love the concepts of sustainability and creativity that this implies.
So imagine my delight when, showing my finds to my dad, he went to his cupboard: it just so happened that the specialised flour he buys for making bread (more on my dad and food in another post!) is still quaintly packaged in pretty printed cotton bags.
He and his wife had kept them as they were so charming, but had no idea what to do with them so were happy to pass them on to me (see photo above)! I will enjoy using these, knowing that they contribued to my dad's delicious bread.
And here is something else I found in the shop: a fabric bag with an adorable owl print (I'm guessing late 1980s/90s)! I had to have this... so roomy and useful and cute!
These were lovely things to buy with money dad gave me for Christmas. I'm happy as since these are all second-hand things, as a gift it is in keeping with my
Careful Christmas Project - I'll be updating on how that went very soon!
