I must be older than dirt, because I do remember when J.C. Penney's sold fabric. I started sewing when I was 8 yrs old, at the end of the 1940's they sold it then because mother had bought it there. I remember them selling it all thru the 50's and 60's. My first part time job was at JCP back in 1959 but not in the fabric dept. I think they stopped it probably in the early 70's in my area. Most of the big department stores sold it too. We also had a Belks (then known as Park-Belks) in our area that had fabrics. When K-Mart came to town, they too had nice fabrics, we had tons to chose from as so many people sewed their own clothing then.