Christmas DIY Craft #2

From the 1800’s to the 1950’s, flour sacks were a common household find. actually, you can even say they were a necessity of daily life in american homes, as they packaged a wide variety of dry goods – like flour, sugar, corn meal, etc. Through the years, these sacks could be found by the truckloads and they became quite plentiful. So plentiful, that in-fact, during the great depression era (1929 – early 1940’s), women found a variety of resourceful purposes for them – including dish towels, quilt pieces, curtains, pillowcases, dresses, and even cloth diapers! 

Manufactures began noticing this trend and soon began to offer decorative designs and patterns on their sacks. The designs only continued to become more and more unique over the years – as hard times had fallen on america’s economy. It was a great marketing strategy by companies to get housewives interested in buying their products. History stories often mention that nearly 3.5 million women and children wore flour sack clothing during the great depression years!

If you know me, you know i love decorating with items that have stories – a history – or a connection with family. Unfortunately, i don’t own any authentic flour sacks, but when i stumbled across these ‘mini gift bags’ in the holiday section at dollar general this season, they immediately reminded me of a few family stories from “simpler times” that i have read/heard about from my grandparents. So, for this week’s christmas craft, i decided to take these gift bags and do my ‘spin’ on decorative flour sacks! …and to honor the history of true flour sacks – this project is very budget-friendly… costing less than $5 total.