Feedsack Pillows

My name is Deborah Jean and I'm a feedsackaholic...There, I said it!

What could be more fun than handling fabric covered in flowers in late winter? I'm starving for all the colors of my yard flowers right about now but the vintage feedsack fabric I've been gathering for making pillows is feeding my appetite for the bold and brilliant colors of a summertime garden at it's  peak! Instead of getting my hands dirty in garden soil I've been humming along with my grandmothers sewing machine making more VINTAGE pillows for my booth at the Antique Mall.

Working with these homespun fabrics also got my detective juices going.

I found a great site with some feedsack history.

Sometime in the 1920's, an enterprising manufacturer of cloth bags hit upon an interesting idea - maybe he could sell more sacks if they were decorated to be more desirable for the farmer's wife. And the era of the printed feedsack began. No longer just beige muslin, with advertising for the feed company, now sacks began to appear in a wide variety of popular colors and prints. And paper labels were applied, like the one pictured above, so that the fabric could be reused without the advertising. Sharons Antiques

Feedsack fabric has been used for making doll clothes, P.J's, dresses, aprons, quilts, hand towels, curtains and more by clever farmwives over the years. I bet today's clever farmwives can come up with many more uses for these beautiful fabrics of yesteryear. It's also highly collectable and desirable to fabric-aholics. I would love any resources you have for these lovely pieces of the past! 

No pattern necessary! 

• measure and cut your fabric in to a 22 x 22 square.
• turn fabric inside out and sew three sides together with a 1 inch seem allowance.
• leave a large enough opening to insert your pillow form.
• turn fabric right side out and insert pillow.
• pin opening together and sew it closed by hand or with your machine. 

Up-cycled feedsack fabric makes adorable cafe' curtains, valances, aprons, tote bags, framed artwork and of course pillows! 

This suburban farmwife is having more fun whipping up these beautiful pillows... The feedsack cloth is soft to the touch but sturdy enough for accent pillows on an over stuffed chair, tossed on the bed for a bit of vintage charm or just simply propped up on your favorite side chair in the kitchen to admire and enjoy all day long! I've got a few more on the work table and more feedsack fabric on the way which I'll post soon PLUS a beautiful up cycled pillow created from embroidered pillow case edges.

Here is another wonderful resource for vintage feedsacks.

Here's a peek!

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