French Cotton Mill Sacks

Giant Linen Sacks from a French Cotton Mill (1940’s - 1960’s)

These Giant Linen Sacks are from a cotton Mill in Lyon France. The SCL stenciled on the front stands for “Societe Cotonniere Lyonnaise”. They were used to hold raw cotton before processing. Most of the sacks also have “NE PAS CROCHETER” stenciled on them, it means (do not hook) in French. We just received a big shipment of these sacks, but this is it, there will never be any more, as it goes with the old stuff.

The sacks are a very nice linen, and they have a lot of character, many have rivets and other hardware to reinforce the straps, we try to incorporate these into what we make.

When we get the sacks, most of them are unbelieveably dirty. It took a couple weeks to figure out a cleaning process that is strong enough to get out the meanest stains and dirt, yet won’t smear or fade the stenciling. The method still takes 2 days to clean each sack, but they come out very nice.

The sacks themselves are beautiful and can be hung as artwork. At the moment we are also making them into pillows, tote bags, floor cushions, bolsters, dog beds etc...

We usually have some at any of the shows we do, or you can come by our store and showroom, Patine located in La Selva Beach, Ca.