quote:I never knew Penney's had sold fabric - does anybody know when they stopped? quote]
Almost all of the big-name stores used to sell fabric. I remember as a teen traveling on the "El" to Chicago's downtown Loop to look for "material" for clothing. The famed Marshall Field's store, Sears, Montgomery Ward, Goldblatt's and others sold fabric. There were no fabric shops at all. I recall that some of the "better" fabric was as much as $3 to $5 a yard! One could buy some very nice cottons for as little as 50 cents a yard and the sales brought in a good crowd.