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    Feedsack Secrets: Fashion from Hard Times
    Feedsack Secrets: Fashion from Hard Times
    Feedsack Secrets: Fashion from Hard Times
    Ebook252 pages54 minutes

    Feedsack Secrets: Fashion from Hard Times

    By Gloria Nixon

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    About this ebook

    A quilt historian chronicles the fascinating yet untold story of feedsack quilts made in America during the Great Depression and WWII.
     
    Feedsacks weren’t meant for anything more than their name implies until hard times changed the way people looked at available resources. In the 1930s and 40s, quilters facing poverty and fabric shortages found that these cotton bags could be repurposed into something beautiful. Manufacturers capitalized on the trend by designing their bags with stylish patterns, like the iconic gingham.
     
    In Feedsack Secrets, quilt historian Gloria Nixon shares the story of the patterned feedsack with research culled from old farm periodicals, magazines and newspapers. Along the way, she reveals how women met for sack-and-snack-club fabric swaps; there were restrictions on jacket lengths, hem depths and the sweep of a skirt; and feedsack prints and bags played a part in political contests, even accurately predicting that Truman would win the 1948 presidential election.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateFeb 1, 2010
    ISBN9781617453830
    Feedsack Secrets: Fashion from Hard Times

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      Book preview

      Feedsack Secrets - Gloria Nixon

      Introduction

      The purpose of this work is to share recent discoveries in the story of the patterned feedsack, also known as the dress print bag. The account begins in the early 1920s with a young man’s invention that grew in popularity to become a national phenomenon. Today, more than eighty years later, interest remains high and has spread around the globe.

      Tens of thousands of pages from old farm periodicals, magazines and newspapers were searched for information that might add to our understanding of feedsack history. Volumes untouched for decades and covered in dust were brought from the archives to be examined. Fascinating details emerged and are presented here. It is my sincere hope you enjoy the new things learned about the history of the dress print bag in Feedsack Secrets: Fashion from Hard Times.

      Chapter One.

      The Father of the Dress Print Bag

      On April 28, 1922, The Washington Post announced, Farewell to the Old Flour Sack. Big millers thought it a good idea to replace five-pound flour sacks with paper cartons. Cartons would be more convenient to handle and make storage easier for the city housewife. In just a few short years, however, both city and rural housewife would see the old flour sack in a new light. Changes were coming, thanks to a young man named Asa T. Bales.

      Asa Theodore Bales was born in Roscoe, Missouri, on July 14, 1892. He was the only child of Alva Jane and Charles H. Bales. In the early 1900s, the Bales family lived in Kansas City, owned a house and had occupations typical of the time. Charles was employed as a streetcar motorman, and Alva worked at home as a seamstress. Seventeen-year-old Asa held the position of salesman in a music store.

      The years passed and Asa fell in love with a young woman from Missouri. He and Allene Ballen were married on October 16, 1913. Before the newlyweds could celebrate their first anniversary, the world was embroiled in war. In April of 1917, the United States declared war on Germany and shortly thereafter passed the Selective Service Act, requiring all male citizens between the ages of twenty-one and thirty to register for military service. The few details known about Asa’s appearance are written on his military registration card. He is described as tall and slender with dark hair and brown eyes. His occupation is listed as Branch Manager of Southwest Milling Company.

      Allene and Asa had a son in February of 1918. It was undoubtedly a stressful time for the young couple. The war still raged and Asa received notice to report to the Army. He was inducted in late summer and sent to Camp McArthur, Texas, where he served until being discharged.

      The following year was not a happy one for Asa and Allene. By the time the January 1920 census was taken, they had separated. Asa was living in his parents’ house in Kansas City. The same census lists Allene and baby Robert with her parents in Carroll County, Missouri.

      Registrar’s report with Asa’s physical description.

      Asa T. Bales draft registration card.

      Missouri State Archives’ World War I service record for Asa T. Bales.

      The Invention

      World War I was finally over and the country entered the Roaring Twenties. Changes were many and for the better in wages, technology, public health, science, literature and art. It was an exciting time with new ideas. Asa had a new idea, too, and filed a patent for it in October of 1924. The patent read, in part:

      "Certain commodities, such as flour, are put in sacks of textile material and such sacks are provided with characters designating the trade mark or brand and the manufacturer, jobber, or dealer. Such sacks, however, usually serve no useful purpose, except that of holding the product for shipment or until used.

      One of the objects of this invention is to provide a package having a sack, the cloth of which is adapted to be used for dress goods after the product has been removed or consumed."

      The application went on to detail the sack should be of a size suitable of being remade into clothing and with a substantially indelible or permanent pattern. The preferable pattern would be cotton gingham having stripes or checks in two or more colors. Markings such as the company name should be of ink that would wash away so the cloth could be used for making dresses or other clothing items.

      Asa Bales assigned the patent to George P. Plant Milling Company of St. Louis, Missouri, who moved quickly to put the pretty sacks in the hands of the consumer. Gingham Girl, in a variety of colors and featuring a charming southern belle, was introduced through the pages of The Northwestern Miller on April 15, 1925, in this announcement:

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