Originally Posted by ThreadHead

When I worked in the fabric department in 1956 we used a meter for measuring yardage, you put in a corner and pull it through to the amount the customer wanted, ie 2 yards, and push the arm down and it would cut about an inch, them take it out of the meter and tear it. We used scissors for cutting out patterns.
back in those days, we also used our arms as measuring tools. We didn't have rulers like today, we had a wooden yard stick, and tape measure. I do remember using feed sacks for skirts for the kids. I still have a box of patterns from the 1950's which I will probably never use. lol People look at my sewing room and make remarks like (boy, you have a lot of stuff, must have cost you a fortune). I don't tell them that some of the things are 30 years old. I have serger thread that I bought in 1980. The moved my sewing room around and some of the cones were crumbling in my hand, but the thread was still strong.