Here's a picture of Mom and two of her siblings, circa 1947, in Plymouth, OH. I wish I had a better photo so you could see the little flowers on these homemade dresses. Mamaw made them from flour sacks. I've been told that a 50 lb. bag of flour cost a whole $0.25 back then! I wonder if one bag made a single dress, or two? Left - Wanda - One year older than my mother, she died six months before Mom at age thirty-eight (two months before her thirty-ninth birthday).
Middle - Richard - He was the sixth child.
Right - Carol, my mother. She was six years old in this photo. She also died at thirty-eight.
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And the thriftiness of our mothers and grandmothers caused them to turn those flour sacks and garments made from flour sacks into quilts to keep their families warm. My great grandmother made oodles of flower garden quilts and I was blessed with the prettiest of the lot since they knew it would be well taken care of. I even have the oldest quilt in our family which was made by my great great grandmother Rutcowski (sp?) and it is over a hundred years old.
How neat it would be to go grocery shopping for flour and sugar while picking fabric at the same time... =)
My grandmother made quilts, too. I never considered that she may have reused the flour sack dresses in quilts! She probably did, though. We used to give her bags of clothes (after they made their hand-me-down rounds) to turn into quilts. Mom always had us remove the buttons, zippers, snaps, etc. before sending them to Mamaw.
She made a quilt for each of my siblings, plus several cousins. We loved her heavy quilts, but not just for the warmth they provided. It was fun to pick out familiar quilt blocks cut from clothes we used to wear.
Mamaw also made quilts to sell. That's how she supplemented her retirement income.
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I'm thrilled that someone else finds these things interesting! Thanks so much for telling me about your own family's quilts and quilters. I'm sure your family is proud that you've continued on the tradition of quilt making.
Uh....you didn't hear this from me...but my grandmother outfitted my mother in underwear made from those flour sacks; and my grandmother on the other side mentioned doing the same thing!! Thank God for modernism!
Whoa! That last one made me itchy! Thank God for THESE "good old days"! I don't know about the whole flour sack thing in my family, but my great-grandmother used news paper for wall paper. I guess it came from the "be thankful for what you've got, and say nothing," mentality. Not that that is a bad thing. Personally I believe it is a lesson we could all benefit from learning.
How sad that the sisters both died so young! My mom died at 45, when I was 9. One flour sack would make one dress, if you're talking the small sizes. You notice the skirts are really full!
When I was much younger, I taught on the Navajo reservation. We bought our flour in 50 lb. bags and sometimes there were the colorful patterns to the bags. Sometimes just a logo. I really liked the Bluebird logo. =)
Other things came in the bags, too, different kinds of feed. Not all the fabric was as nice as the flour sacks, though. Still made for itchy underwear until they were washed a lot.
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