Vintage finds: Vintage sacks

Vintage sacks used for flour, feed, seed, laundry, ballots or banking have a special place in my collector's heart.

I am finally ready to let go of some of my favorites and have been sorting and eventually pricing them for The Market.

One of my favorites - the Cheyenne Steam Laundry bag that we found in Denver. Check out the phone number!

What do you do with these great vintage finds, especially when some may only be in "cutter" condition? Some of my favorite projects are for pillows like the set we have in our living room. There are also some really cute potholders that I have pinned on my project board, but haven't gotten around to making. I am also a huge fan of making these into bags.

 We found this bag in an antique store. I couldn't pass it up because I loved the vibrant colors.

 A talented seamstress friend transformed a seed corn sack into a bag. I love the spaciousness and the great pockets she included. My mom has a matching version.

Another talented friend made this more modern version. I love that it is lined with a sweet "country" cotton fabric and the outside it essentially weather proof!

Vintage feed sack totes

My friend and sewing goddess worked her magic again!  Check out the vintage seed sack totes that MandiMoo Designs made.  MandiMoo Designs has helped me with several projects this year...custom made camera straps, iPad cases, a custom camera bag, and now awesome totes out of some of those vintage sacks my dad gave me several years ago.

You might remember that my mom and I turned alfalfa seed and ballot sacks into pillows.  I set aside a set of Pioneer Seed sacks because the color and condition were really spectacular.  And, I had been researching projects (read wasting time) on Pinterest and saw a tote made out of a vintage sack and thought I needed one.

Since my friend is awesome at making bags of all shapes, sizes and purposes, I thought she would be someone to entrust with these vintage items.  She had full creative license to decide how to make the bags beautiful and functional and she did a fantastic job!

The lining is a ticking fabric.  She saved the instructions from long ago about how to open the bag and incorporated the printed instructions on the interior pocket.

My mom has the second bag.  She will put it to good use during softball season for my nieces this summer.