Estate sales are my new favorite place to shop. It’s a bit of an addiction, I think.
Over the summer, I picked up these grain sacks from an estate sale where the family had built the house over a 100 years ago, and then a couple of generations had been living in the house since that time. Needless to say, there was A LOT of cool stuff.
There was a bin of about 20 of these Quaker Oatmeal sacks, and I am still kicking myself for not buying all of them. Think of all the cool pillows and chair seat covers I could have made with these, UGH!
Anyway, only two of them made it home with me, and I whipped up two quick pillows from them. Yet another regret with these guys, I wish I had made covers from these pillows rather than stuffing and sewing the pillow shut, but that’s okay, they’ll still do their job, and the whole pillow will just need to thrown in the washing machine to be washed.
Grain sacks like these are actually printed with wash-out inks, but I’ve found that it you wash them in cold water on a gentle cycle with a mild detergent, and tumble dry on a low setting, the colors really don’t fade away at all. Maybe because I made them into full pillows, I won’t end up washing them often (another way to make sure the printing doesn’t fade!)
I wanted to keep the graphic in tact, so the pillows are quite large, but I think they are still the perfect size for a large throw pillow or to prop up behind your back. Surprisingly, these grain sacks were already very soft – perfect for pillows!
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This is awesome! I actually have a much smaller pillow sitting ready to be posted about made out of a flour sack. I love the look- your oatmeal sack is so fun!!