Kath
When I was just a maiden fair,
Mama made our underwear.

With many kids and Dad's poor pay,
We had no fancy lingerie.

Monograms and fancy stitches,
Did not adorn our sunday britches.

Pantywaists that stood the test
Had "Gold Medal" on my breast.

No lace or ruffles to enhance,
Just "Pride of Bloomington" on my pants

One pair of panties that beat them all,
For it had a scene I still recall,

Harvesters were gleaning wheat
Right across my little seat.

Rougher than a grizzly bear,
Was my flour sack underwear!

Plain not fancy, and two feet wide
And tougher than a hippo's hide,

All thru the depression, each Jill and Jack
Wore the sturdy garb of sack.

Waste not, want not we soon learned,
That a penny saved is a penny earned.

There were curtains and tea towels too.
And that's just to name a few

But the best beyond compare
Was my flour sack underwear.




Shirley Jean
I didnt get the undies but wore lots of flour sack dresses --pretty printed flour sacks. Lots of my friends wore em too . Didnt really know we were "poor folk"--loved those new dresses!!


Lee
I remember flour sack dresses and some of our diapers were from flour sacks.


Sammy
I can remember flour sack dresses, and flour sack underwear,(bloomers) flour sack dish cloths, and I'm sure Mama used them for diapers too.


shirley
I REMEMBER MOTHER MADE PILLOW CASES OUT OF CHICKEN FEED SACKS AND ALSO SOMETIMES LITTLE DRESSES BUT NO UNDERWARE.OF COURSE THAT WAS A LITTLE AFTER THE DEPRESSION AS I WAS BORN IN 1935.


Nan
That was nice Kath..
I remember those flour sacks...But the ones Grandmother used to get were printed.. Mom made outfits for my daughter when she was a baby with them..


Darlene
I don't remember the printed flour sacks, but my grandmother made slips from the white ones.
What I do remember was the printed chicken feed sacks. I wore many a chicken feed sack dress! She also made her bonnets and aprons (always the bib type) from the sacks. With the scraps she made quilt blocks. She always went along to buy the feed so she could match the prints to get enough for a dress.
The prints were very pretty.


Darlene: a story from Dale
He told me a story about a aunt of his way back when they made undies from the flour sacks.
She was in town one Saturday, the shopping day for everyone in those days. Lots of people on the street, she bent over to do something, a gust of wind caught her dress & blew it up. Right across her bottom it said "Sweet and Pure". That was the logo for a brand of flour. I guess she liked to never have lived that down.


barbara
My aunt made me a dress,from a flower sack and I loved it.


Sammy
It was long after the depression for me too. I was born in 1940. But feed sacks, flour sacks, any cloth was used for something.


H.S.
Boy do I remember those flower sack dress... the rich kids would make fun of us that had to wear them... but we would have dress like the stars in movies... mommy would send for the patterns then pass them around to the other moms...


Kath
Hey, Dale that was a cute story, reminds me of my first "whoopee pants", Little girls many years ago didn't wear slacks the way they do now, and I wanted a pair of the newest rage Whoopee Pants.. they were kinda like bell bottoms of later years..
My Mom resisted but I nagged her into a pair. So she got some flour sacks out washed and bleached them but the printing didn't all come out.. She made the pants anyway...and across the seat of them stated loudly in BOLD print.."Red Rose Flour haha my cousins never let me forget it...


Hilda
Also when we were growing up,we had a cow and her feed came in pretty design sacks. So my sister and I were always arguing over who was going to get the sacks for dresses :). Mama would wash them up and soften them and then make our dresses. Ah, those were the days. LOL It would be nice if all we had to worry about today was who is going to get the flour and feed sacks.


Darlene
Cute story Kath. I forgot to add that my grandmother made her own patterns. She would look at pictures in catalogs or the newspaper and cut her own patterns. I don't know how she did it but they always fit.


Patsy
We were given a quilt for our 50th wedding anniversary last Saturday. It was pieced together by my grandmother from material from feed sacks. My dil's grandmother quilted it for us. I had the quilt top for years but had never gotten it quilted. I was so thrilled. I can see our dresses and skirts and who wore them back in the 50's....So many good memories.


Vel
AH THE MEMORIES. MY DAUGHTERS HAD SHORTS AND TOPS MADE OF THE FEED SACKS. AND I HAD A QUILT TOP OF MY MOTHERS THAT I JUST GAVE MY DAUGHTER IN OKLA. SHE SAID THIS WEEKEND SHE FOUND A LADY THERE WHO WAS GOING TO DO THE QUILTING FOR HER. WE HAD POINTED OUT THE DIFERENT PRINTS AND WHAT WAS MADE FROM SOME OF THEM. YES WE USED EVERY SCRAP OF MATERIAL FOR SOMETHING USEFUL. SHUCKS WE THOUGHT WE WERE THE BEST IN THOSE CLOTHES. I EVEN USED MENS RED AND BLUE HANKERCHIEFS FOR TOPS FOR MY GIRLS. THEY STILL TALK ABOUT THEM. TODAY HERE IN NJ YOU CAN BUY HANDKERCHIEFS BUT NOT BIG ONES LIKE THE FARMERS USED TO HAVE.



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