Historian recounts story of how feed bags were used as clothing

FAIRFIELD - Local historian Mike Zahs showed a variety of cloth bags to showcase a part of history, on Saturday in the Jefferson County Park.

While showing examples at each step, Zahs told attendees how patterns emerge in cloth bags because housewives were using them as towels.

Companies decided to start putting patterns on their feed and flour bags to market them to women.

Zahs said it was around 1925 when patterns on the bags started to emerge. At one point, Zahs said there were 42 different cotton cloth milling companies making bags.

Zahs said women started to use the bags as clothing.

While showing examples of different patterns and colors on chicken feed bags, Zahs told stories about how women would use the fabrics for items such as curtains, pillow cases, clothing, toys and quilts.

'It was a fabulous way to test the market,” Zahs said. If they were popular in the feed store, Zahs said the companies would put the pattern in the fabric stores.

Zahs said it took three bags to cloth the average woman, or 300 pounds of chicken feed. Zahs said companies would send a variety of patterns to each store, and women would hold gatherings to trade patterns and colors.

'A lot of the little girls liked to go to school with the sisters dressed the same, but it was hard to get enough sacks,” Zahs said.

Some of the bags had directions on how to remove the ink labeling on the bags. Some needed hot water, some needed cold water.

Zahs said it was a sign of a bad housewife if they found bags with the labels still on after she died.

Many of the attendees remembered clothing made from bags, and some mentioned still having bags or items made from bags.