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Extension Bulletin 260 December, 1940 EXTENSION SERVICE The State College of Washington Pullman, Washington USING SURPLUS COTTON SACKS By Miss Alice Sundquist Extension Specialist in Clothing and Textiles Surplus flour sacks, feed sacks, seed sacks, and fertilizer sacks have uses as household textiles and can be used in making clothing. The coarse texture of many of these bags makes them harmonious when used with simple furnishings and hand-made things. However, the heavy sacks, such as feed, seed and fertilizer: sacks, have a comme'rcial value when returned to the feed or seed store. If material could be pur chased for the money received from the sacks to make a more suitable and, perhaps, a less expensive article, this should be taken into consideration before using them for household purposes. The fuzzy surface of flour sq.ck material ·causes it to soil more easily than smooth-finished material. For this reason, it is well to adapt flour sacks to articles which will not show soiling. For instance, clothing, such as aprons, dresses, blouses, and shirt , made from flour sacks soils easily and requires much laundering to keep it looking neat. Pajamas and sport clothing are garments best suited to sack materials. Infants' slips may be made from soft quality sugar sacks. If necessary, rompers for creeping babies may be made from· soft, firm material of sugar sacks, and underwear, panties, shorts, nightgowns, and slips may be made from flour and sugar sacks of suitable quality. The dish towel has the first claim on flour sacks. Every home should have an ample supply, so that dishes can always be dried with a clean, fresh towel. Clean to~els are also indispensable at times to cover food or large containers. Flour sacks are easily adapted to the following household articles: Dish towels Curtains Pillow cases Comfort protectors Sheets Dressing table skirt Luncheon cloths Window shades Place mats Shoe cases Tablecloths Garment covers Tray cloths Laundry bags Jelly strainers Bean bags Mattress covers Stuffed animals Card table covers Dolls Heavy feed, seed, and fertilizer sa·cks are suitable for: Shoe bag Shower curtains Laundry bag Place mats Clothes pin bag Mats for tops of furniture Pillow Bedspread Draw curtains Published and distributed in furtherance of the Act of May 8, 1914, by the State College of Washington, Extension Service, F . E. Balmer, Director, and U . S. Department of A griculture, cooperating. 2 To Rip Bag Most cotton bags are sewn with chain stitching. This stitching us ually starts in the lower corner near the fold. By cutting the chain close to the bag and taking hold of the ends of the upper and lower threads at this point and pulling both, the stitching is ripped in a few seconds. If any difficulty is experienced, the bag has perhaps been stitched from the other end. T o Remove Printing Because the ink used in printing the sacks varies in compositiOn, it is difficult to be always sure the method used to remove it will be successful. If sacks are washed in hot water before being treated, the printing is set and it is impossible to remove it. Method 1. Turn the sacks wrong side out and shake. Soak the sacks overnight in lukewarm water to which one tablespoon of kerosene has been added for each gallon of water. Wash them in several waters, using plenty of soapsuds; rinse thoroughly. Method 2. Cover the inked places with lard and leave it on overnight. Wash out in warm soapsuds. Method 3. Soak the sacks in cool water for 20 minutes. Wring out the water and place the sacks on a table. Rub laundry soap well into the print ing and roll the sack up into a tig ht roll and let stand for 20 minutes. Again rub soap well into printing. R oll up the sack and let stand 20 minutes. Wash. Bleaching To remove the pink tint resulting when sacks are washed, wet the bags, then spread them in direct sunlight to bleach. Repeat this process several times, if necessary. A commercial bleach, or Javelle water made at home, may be used. Use one tablespoon Javelle water to each gallon -of water, or one cup of Javelle water to a boiler full. To make Javelle water: Dissolve one-half pound of washing soda in one quart of cold water. T o this solution add one-fourth pound of ordinary bleaching powder, com monly called chloride of lime. Filter this liquid through a piece of muslin or fl our sack to remove the sediment which remains. Keep the clear liquid in tightly-stoppered bottles. Use in home bleaching and stain removal. Dyeing Sack materials take dye well. The colors are deep, solid and lasting. Clever tie-dyeing may be done easily. Block printing is also an effective decoration. For information on dyeing, obtain Extension Bulletin No. 193-Dyeing Clot hing at Home and USDA Miscellaneous Publication No. 230, Home Dyeing with Nat ural Dyes. For information on block printing, obtain mimeographed circular entitled Block P rinting. Publications are available at any County Agricultural Extension Service. Office. 3 Sim plicity the Keynot e t o T rimming Elaborate trimming would be out of place on sack materials. A little simple, inexpensive, and quickly done trimming is effective and in keeping with the material. Outline stitch, chain stitch, cross stitch, drawn threads, stitching with heavy colored thread o.n the ma·chine, couching, buttonhole stitch, applique, bias trims, borders of print material, rick-rack, and block printing are suitable decorative treatments. On the whole, deep colors are more suitable than pastel shades. Suggestions for Makin g Some A r ticles Dish Towels-Bern dish towels by machine on two raw edges, u sing a }'8-inch hem reinforced with back stitching at both ends. P illoWK:ases-One large flour sack will make one pillowcase with a 3-inch machine-stitched hem or use a border of print material. The common torn sizes for pill owcases before hemming are 42 x 36 (or 380) inches for a 20 x 27-inch pillow and 45 x 36 (or 380) inches for a 22 x 28-inch pillow. It is always wise to have the case a little larger around than the pillow. Two inches larger is recommended. Sheets-Sew several sacks together making a flat-fell seam to keep edges from pulling out. Make 3-inch hems on both ends so that either end may be used for the top. For double beds, sheets 90 inch es wide and 108 inches long before hemming are most satisfactory. Bedspreads-Sew several heavy seed sacks together. If they have woven-in colored stripes, run them a·cross the spread. Join the sides to the top with a corded seam, using a heavy colored material covering the cord ·which repeats a color of the stripe you want to bring out. Make it long enough to cover the pillows adequately. Ninety inches wide by 108 inches long is a good size spread for a double bed. Comfort or Blanket Protectors-Bleached fl our sacks may be used to make a thin protector for the blankets. The material should be as long as the width of the blankets and about a yard wide. Double lengthwise and sew the ends together. This forms a slip cover which may be removed for fre quent laundering. Tack with thread or use small size safety pins. Mattress Cover-A mattress protector may be made of bleached flour sacks to fit the mattress. It may be button ed at the end using old rubber buttons from discarded children's clothing. The seams joining the side boxing to top and bottom may be bound with tape, or french seams may be made with the seam on the outside to give a well Mattresss Cover tailored appearance. 4 Curtains-Coarse-textured seed or feed sacks may be used as draperies or draw curtains in natural color using woven colored stripes running cross wise as a trim with wooden rings painted to harmonize with colored stripes or of same color as the sack material. The heavy, linen-like sack materials in natural color or dyed an appropriate color may be used as draperies or draw curtains using trimmings such as wool fringe or block printing. Soft quality, sheer sugar sacks permit more light to penetrate than flour sacks. Natural color or dyed flour or sheer sugar sacks may be trimmed with bands of print or plain material. Use rick rack or bias tape as trims. Hang curtains simply, using a heading or straight valance. The use of a straight valance makes it possible to piece the curtains under the valance as is often necessary on long windows. The heading may be entirely pieced or ~ with joining line at the bottom line of stitching or heading. ll A double heading used to cover rod be French-headed draw curtains using heavy tween curtains. seed sacks having colored woven stripes. Tablecloths, Luncheon Sets, and Place Mats-Simply trimmed cloths made from sacks are attractive when used with pottery dishes or other everyday dishes. 1. Fold a hem to the right side and insert colored rickrack, stitching close to the edge of the hem. A mitered corner gives a well-tailored look to this cloth. Rickrack ap plied this way is easy to iron. 2. To make a large cloth join four sacks using rickrack. Use- rickrack for edge trim. Machine or ha.nd made fagoting with heavy colored crochet cotton or cord may be u sed in place of rickrack Tablecloth 5 Mark the desired spacing on a piece of heavy paper, and baste the work to this paper, spacing the seams even with the pencil marks.