Bates Disneyland Fabric - Tea Cups

I've had this fabric scanned and ready to post for a while, ever since the slew of feedsack and fabric posts back in August 2014, but I didn't know who made it so I held off on posting.  Today, we were finally able to make out the faintest copyright line in light pink(!) printing on the selvage, and it is in fact Bates like all the others.

The color of the fabric is not captured very well in this photo, it is really more of a very pale blue, but the pattern is pretty cool with old school tea cup ride decorations.  Sadly I don't have very much of it, and have never seen any more, would be cool to make a shirt out of this.

1970s Jersey Fabric

The last of the fabric posts - until I find something new.  This stuff just screams the 1970s to me, but please correct me if I'm wrong.  It is some sort of jersey-like material, very lightweight.  So far I have found it in two colorways:  white

and pink.

And I've even found two homemade items in it, one of each color.  A blouse or pajama top in the white

and a baby blanket in the pink

Bates Disciplined Fabric - Alice Painting the Roses Red

Another Bates fabric, probably from the same era, is this very neon example featuring Alice in a number of poses with some rose trees that have been painted red.

While this example does still have a selvedge, it just lists the company name and the Disney copyright.

Bates Disneyland Fabric - Alice in Wonderland in Blue

Ok, so yesterday I said I assumed this fabric was available in store.  It was.  And this is a piece of it in blue.  I've not yet found a piece in pink.  I really like the mushroom background pattern.  All of the characters are a little crudely rendered, but what do you expect for cotton fabric from so long ago?  No selvedge on this piece, so I don't know what, if anything, this pattern was called other than Alice in Wonderland.

As luck would have it, I also have a homemade item using this fabric - a doll's apron or pinafore.  I love finding stuff like this.

Bates Disneyland Fabric Ad

What is really an ad for kids bathing suits as sold only at Disneyland is in fact also an ad for Bates Disciplined Fabric in Disney prints

The Alice in Wonderland print was available in both blue and pink, and although the Can Can style swim suit was only sold at Disneyland by Cole of California, the fabric was available in fabric stores everywhere.  Or so I assume.

Kent Feedsack - Merit Chicken Feed Advertisement - October 1951

This is awesome, the only one I've ever seen, and I don't even know from which publication it came.  It is an ad for chicken feed featuring the Alice in Wonderland feedsack promotion.

This ad came out of a fantastic scrapbook I purchased about 10 years ago that belonged to a little boy in Texas.  This kid was just like me - totally obsessed with Disney's Alice.  The entire scrapbook is filled with all things Alice from when the movie came out, and this filled an entire page.

Based on the date on the bottom of the page it must be some sort of monthly  publication, and it is oversized, page size is about 11x14, and this is page 55.  It is newsprint rather than glossy, and it has browned considerably; the scan above has been heavily photoshopped by me.  If anyone has any idea from which publication this came, I will be in your debt.

UPDATE:  I now know that this is from a publication called The Farmer Stockman.  Let the search begin!

Kent Feedsack - Homemade Items

Since the entire purpose of these printed feedsacks was to enable homemakers to sew clothes or other items from them, let's take a look at some!

This is a baby blanket made with not one but two full feedsacks, and one of each pattern.  Interesting that they chose the yellow and green colors, guess this was a shower gift and they chose non-traditional gender colors.

This looks like a smock or dress or pinafore for a very young girl, no more than 18 months I would guess.  It laces up the back.

This is an apron, probably made for a little girl to help her mother with the chores.

And this is another apron, could be for a girl or Mom, but is in very good shape, doesn't look like it was every used.

I love stuff like this, things that were actually used as they were designed.  I have a few other items like this, but they appear to be small tablecloths or perhaps basket liners and as such just look like a big square, so not the interesting to photograph.

Kent Feedsack - Alice Cast in Yellow

Last of the series, and again a color unique to this pattern, yellow.

This colorway is special, well sort of.  It is the one and only example I have that remains a flour sack complete with label.  All others that I have have had the label removed, although some remain sacks.

Notice the Percy Kent logo in the upper right corner of the label.

So that makes two patterns, two styles (feed and flour), and 5 colors per pattern, with 4 colors specific to one pattern or another (to date).  That makes 10 distinct colorway/pattern combinations, with another 10 potential variations for feed/flour - although I've only encountered feedsacks in two colors and only in the Alice Cast pattern.  I don't even know if the two different fabrics correspond to differences in flour vs feed, but it is the only distinction I can imagine.

Kent Feedsack - Alice Cast in Blue

A new color, specific to this pattern, blue.

This is the only feedsack I've encountered in this color, and it is a true feedsack with the loose open weave.

Kent Feedsack - Alice Cast in Pink

Third in the series, and again the last of the common colors of the two patterns is pink

This example does have a good image of the selvage printing.  Unlike the Painting the Roses Red pattern, this pattern simply states From Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland © WDP.  Again, this colorway is the only variation in this pattern for which I do not have a full sack.  Help me find one :-)

Kent Feedsack - Alice Cast in Green

Second in the Alice Cast pattern is green.

Lots of odd color combinations here, but the King and Tweedles are fairly normal.

Kent Feedsack - Alice Cast in White

The second of the two feedsack patterns is called the March of the Cards in the CMD, but it contains a wide variety of characters from the entire film including Alice, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Card Soldiers, a Rocking Horse Fly, Bread and Butter Flies, the White Rabbit, the Queen of Hearts, the King of Hearts, a Baby Oyster, the Caterpillar as a butterfly, and a Daisy from the Garden of Live Flowers.  Quite an all-star cast, that's what I'll call it as the selvage does not list a pattern name.

This particular color and pattern combination is the only one in which I have both flour sacks and feed sacks.  The flour sack is a tight dense weave

whereas the feedsack is a looser more open weave.  Hopefully you can see the differences in these comparative images.

I must say Alice looks fairly demented with her pink eyes and green lips.

Kent Feedsack - Painting the Roses Red in Aqua

Last of the Painting the Roses Red sacks, again in a color only found in this pattern - aqua.

Full sack on this one, with an interesting bit attached.

This appears to be a remnant of a sewn in tag.  Notice also the stitching holes in the fabric, showing the rounded corners of the original sack.  Neat.

While I don't have an Alice sack with a sewn tag, I did find this image of a different PK flour sack with a sewn tag.

Kent Feedsack - Painting the Roses Red in Periwinkle

Next up is Painting the Roses Red in periwinkle!

What an unusual color, and specific to this pattern in my experience, one of two colors specific to the flowers pattern.

Kent Feedsack - Painting the Roses Red in Pink

Next up is the pink variation of Painting the Roses Red.

What I find amusing about this particular variation is that they swapped the colors of the foliage and the petals for the Red Rose, making her in effect the Green Rose.  I am looking for a full size example in this colorway, and I have others to trade if anyone is interested.

Kent Feedsack - Painting the Roses Red in Green

Next up is the Painting the Roses Red in green.

This example has a very distinct pattern name printed on the selvage.  It is also a full sack, although this one has been opened so it is a full yard of cloth 46" wide.

Kent Feedsack - Painting the Roses Red in White

The first feedsack pattern is what the CMD called the Garden of Live Flowers but on the fabric itself is called Painting the Roses Red.  This example is white, which appears to be the most common color in this pattern, which is by far the most common of the two based upon what I've encountered over the years.  This sack is probably a flour sack given the weight of the fabric and the density of the weave.  In actuality, almost all the Alice sacks seem to be flour sacks although I have a couple of the feed variety.

The pattern is a repeated block of the various flowers from the garden, including the Red Rose, White Rose, Iris, Pansies, Daffodils, Lilies, and Tulips.  The pattern repeats both right-side-up and upside-down, so that there is no true right orientation.  This particular example is a full sack, measuring 36x23, which if were taken apart would be 36x46, a very nice size piece of fabric with which to make a child's garment!

Percy Kent Bag Co, Inc 'Ken-Print' Feedsacks - Character Merchandise Division Catalog Page

Time for another series, this time we are leaving the world of production art and moving into the world of promotional licensed merchandise - in this case feedsacks.

It used to be that people bought flour and other dry goods (including animal feed) in large fabric sacks, and then made staples like bread from the flour rather than purchasing bread outright.  These feedsacks or flour sacks were often printed in colorful patterns that could be repurposed in any number of ways - usually in quilts or similar needle work.  Disney (among others) licensed their characters for print fabric used in these sacks.  In 1951 Disney licensed the Alice characters for a series of these sacks in 3 patterns:  Garden of Live Flowers, March of the Cards, and Mad Tea Party.  Of these three, only two seem to have been produced; I've never seen a sack with the below Mad Tea Party artwork.

Over the next several days we'll be exploring the various patterns and colors released as a part of this promotion.  Stay tuned!

Flexton Material by Elrene Mfg Co

So yeah, I've got this, nearly 10 yards of the pink Flexton material

This is the item that caused most of the ribbing from my friends and family.  Something about using it to make my burial shroud in my Vinyl resting place, as I head off to my Vinyl reward.  Nice.

The fabric has all 3 designs in both sizes, so all items were made from this single roll of fabric.  Sorry for the crappy picture, I'll try to get a better one later.

A New Discovery - McCall's Alice Sewing Pattern - Minikin Display Pattern

I have recently acquired the following, something I had never heard of before. What at first glance looks just like a standard McCall's pattern from the 1951 promotion with Indian Head Cotton, is in fact something pretty unusual - and quite cool.


This is a pattern for a display minikin. What is a display minikin you may ask? That is a very good question, something that I did not know myself until I found this item and received some assistance from people in the know sewing-wise.

Once you know what it is, it makes perfect sense. A minikin is a miniature mannequin. These were used in fabric stores to display finished clothing made from the featured patterns. These were of course smaller versions of the regular pattern, presumably to save money on fabric and time to sew them together. My wife actually has a minikin, it looks like a miniture dress form. We did not know that it had this special name until we found this pattern.

Apparently there were LOTS of these patterns made for use in stores, conceivably there are minikin versions of EVERY pattern, but that is probably unlikely, probably only those patterns that were thought to be big sellers got a minikin version. I would love to see photos of minikins in action with these Alice clothes...there must be some out there somewhere!

UPDATE: Sandra commented that the photo of my wife's 'minikin' is in fact just a miniature dress form. I'm on the hunt for a photo of a real minikin, if anyone out there has one, I'd love to see it!

UPDATE #2: Thanks again to Sandra, she provided me with this fantastic photo of a real minikin. I think she looks like Scarlett Johansson.

Apparently minikins are about 30 inches tall, and are essentially big (sometimes) articulated dolls. The ultimate Barbie ;-)