ThayerRags

Discussions about old fabric stores (long before they were called “quilt shops”) on another thread got me & my wife to reminiscing about who sold fabric back years ago when she started sewing as a teenager, what fabric was available at the time, and how fabric was handled back then.

She didn’t get to buy much new fabric, but when she did, it was usually at Woolworth’s. Once in a while, she may have bought some at the JC Penney store, but she remembers Penney’s more for the stairway that you had to go up to get to the women’s and girl’s clothing. It wasn’t a full two-story building, but had departments and offices up on the second level. It seems to me that it had those air tubes that the clerk put a ticket and your money into a canister and shot it up to the office. Your change and receipt would come swooshing back down in a few minutes. Similar to modern drive-in banks, but the canisters were metal and only about the size of a small juice can.

We have an old measuring/cutting table in our shop that has the meter mounted on the side of it from the days when fabric was measured and nicked with the meter, and then your fabric portion was ripped from the roll or bolt. We’ve never used it, but keep it set up just for fun. I found the meter along with two others up in the attic shortly after we bought the shop. The table or bench that it’s mounted on is 10’ long x 4’ wide x 2 1/2’ high, and has a storage area underneath.

Can you remember where you first bought new fabric?

For those who have never seen one, here’s a couple of photos of a fabric measuring meter.

CD in Oklahoma