Flour was sold in 50-pound amounts in white cloth sacks, which made a good sized piece of cloth when the seams were taken out. I think we had to buy that much about every week, so we had lots of 'em. The wording would be bleached out to leave a nice white piece of material. One sack would make a good sized tea towel or, if sown together, women made table cloths, curtains, sheets, and other items from them. Tea towel sets were common decorated with stamped designs and embroidery. I even made a bed sheet out of flour sacks once.
Flour sacks were also used for little girls under clothes. One day a girl in my class had to go to the blackboard to write a word in spelling class. When she raised her hand up to write, her little flour sack bloomers showed the printing which read: "Bread is the best and cheapest food". I suppose she never did know what happened, and it’s just as well. I guess her mom didn't use enough bleach to get the words out.
Someone thought of the idea of selling chicken feed in sacks made of bolts of cloth of various designs. People used these chicken feed sacks for making dresses, aprons, curtains, or what have you. The moms picked out the kind of sack they liked then tried to get enough of one design for whatever they were going to make. They were used in many ways. I have had dresses made of feed sacks.
We made purses out of worn out innertubes—I think they were just for little girls. I remember having one and what it looked like but not who made it.
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Wish I had a floursack dress...
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