Collections

Flour Sack Apron

Accession #:	4094.1
Title:	Flour Sack Apron
Object Type:	Apron
Participants:	Lewis, Sadie Ellen (creator) Sperry Flour Company General Mills, Inc.
Physical Description:	A mid-calf length pull-over apron (no back ties) made from a flour sack. Visible on the front of the apron is the text from the flour sack in faded blue ink (see inscription field for details).
Description:	Sadie Ellen Lewis likely made and wore this flour sack apron during the Depression in the Spokane County area. Farm families are known for repairing, reusing, and making do, and few had money to purchase new clothes at a store, particularly during the 1930s. Mending and patching was standard, and hand-me-down clothes cycled through the family. Women used the fabric from sacks of flour or livestock feed to sew everything from girls' dresses to boys' shirts and even underpants. Flour and feed companies soon caught on and created new patterns on the sacks. By rotating the patterns, companies created incentive to buy quantities of the same pattern.
Category:	Textiles
Dimensions:	length 43"
Materials/Techniques:	cotton (textile) (Material)
Marks/Inscription:	Company logo and advertising: "Surebuild," "Combined Starting Growing, Mash," Farm Tested Reg. U. S. Pat. Off.," Sperry Flour Company, Western Division of General Mills Inc. Offices in San Francisco, 100 lbs."
Related Exhibits:	Fox Theater Exhibit Inland Northwest Narrative: Crossroads and Confluence Exhibit honoring Marsha Rooney and 30 years of service to the Eastern Washington State Historical Society. Golden Harvest: Flour Sacks from the Permanent Collection
Credit Line:	Gift of Debra Fisher Seefeldt, 2003

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