Does anyone remember?
 

Years ago, when I first started sewing, the JoAnn's store in town was in a small strip mall. I remember when I would bring the fabric to the cutting table, they had a machine that they would run the fabric edge thru to measure the amount to be purchased, instead of measuring it against a ruler on the cutting table. Does anyone remember these machines? Or what they were called? And why they stopped using them?? Just wondering......

Yes, they were called Measuregraphs or something like that. Maybe that was the name of the company that made them.

Yes, I do remember them!!

Great memory, DebraK! They WERE made by Measuregraph, and still are actually.
http://www.measuregraph.com/Product_...20Machines.htm

In fact, there's a compact one on eBay right now (current bid is only $18 - would be great for measuring a large stash).
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=measuregraph

Yes i remember

I remember them in many stores that sold fabric (I am old enough to remember when Sears sold fabric, lol!)

Oh yes! I remember those machines. It was fun to watch the clerk pull the fabric through.. then wiggle it back and forth to get the exact amount. Good memory! :cool:

Wonder why they stopped using them too..I am really feeling old now remembering them!! We didn't have a Joannes when I was younger, but I remember those from where my mother bought her fabric

Yes I remember them. I used to use them at a fabric store where I worked. And I also remember JoAnns was "Fabric by the Yard" first before they were bought out by JoAnns.

I think in Nashville, JoAnn's was called Cloth World or maybe JoAnn's bought them out. And yes I too remember the "machine". Isn't it funny how we forget about things we haven't seen for a while?

I worked in a fabric store when I was in college. It felt so cool to pull the fabric through the machine to measure yardage! I had seen it done for years as a kid when my mom bought fabric....aaahhh the memories!!

that's the only way I recall having fabric measured. it was back when fabric was ripped instead of cut.

Now that you mention it, yes I remember them. That was hightech. How they regressed.

I remember them well. They stopped using them back when knits fabrics came in to popularity. The knits would stretch as they went through the machine , and when the machine made its cut , the measured amount would be short once the knit fabric retracted back , once pulled out from the machine. During this time quilting cottons became a very very small portion of what was sold.
So many quilts made in this era are from double knits, as that was what was popular. Irons almost became obsolete during this era. Poly or poly blends were the perfered fabric , as they required no ironing.

No ironing is a nice thing!

However... I still like cotton. Even in the clothes I buy, I prefer to wear cotton rather than synthetic fibers.

And yes, I do remember those machines! Oh gee. I remember back in the day when a lot of our local department stores had a fabric department. JC Penney had one, I think...

Yes I remember them, I would think they went to the hand-held machines because they are mobile.

Yes I remember them!

Sad to say that I remember them. Am I really that old?!

They still use them in some stores in this area ... but only in the upholstery dept.
If staff are available, one person rolls it thru at the start, while the other rolls it onto the new roll.

Or if you're wanting a whole bolt of quilting cotton, they will send you to that machine.

Folded fabrics do not run as smoothly as the flat upholstery, sometimes jamming. So I would suspect that might be the reason they are not on the regular cutting tables.

Yes I remember them. I have heard 2 stories as to why they are no longer in use. One is because of knit fabrics the other is that since they are a measuring device they fell under the US Weights and Measures dept. and had to be checked by them on a periodic basis to make sure they were measuring correctly. This was an additional maintenance expense. Don't know if either on of these are true, but reading about those machines sure brings back fond memories!

I also remember them. My Mother worked in a dry good store that use them and I got to try one one time. Boy, brings back lots of good memories. Love ready this board. Makes me remember lots of things that are foggy in the memory bank. LOL.

I remember that gadget from our "material store" on the main drag in our town. I still have the apron I made in the 6th grade from the "material" the ladies helped me pick out. That was about 55 years ago!! I remember that most of the "material" was behind the counter and you pointed to what you thought you wanted and the ladies brought it down and then a discussion ensued. Boy, were things different!!!!

When they had the fabric at the right spot, they would push down a handle to cut a starting spot for the clerk to cut the fabric!

I remember using that machine when I worked Montgomery Ward's fabric department. There were lots of comments about shorting fabric if an inexperienced clerk pulled the fabric tightly as it was measured ... and we couldn't use the machine on much of the polyester fabric. Those were the days!!! LOL

It's amazing what is discussed on this board ... love it! brings back oldddddd memories!!!

The discussion of fabric in department stores really brings me back, and fabric stores being downtown. Amluxen's had the best collection of wool, right on the mall, down from YQR. And department stores also had books, and chocolate, and records, and restaurants to stop and get coffee and pie or coke and fries after a long day's shopping. The flip side--you had to dress up to go to Dayton's or Marshall Fields, unless you didn't want to go with my mother.

and JC Penneys, and Woolworths, and Ben Franklin's and, and,....lol

the Singer stores had nice fabric in the 60's...and classes to teach the teens to sew in the summer.

I remember them from a ways back. I'd think fabric would stretch too much----------specially those that are stretchy. Never heard a name.

Ahhhhh, memories! Yes, I remember those cool cutting machines! Also remember having to put on a dress, to ride the bus into town, with my mom. That was in New Orleans and all of the "big stores" were on Canal St.

We used to have a Cloth World. Not too long ago, I pulled some fabric from my stash (inherited from many sources) that had a Cloth World tag on it. I just assumed they went under, nothing more.

Cloth World was an acquisition of parent company of JoAnn's. This was of the time of conglomerates swiping up all the competitors in an area. In Kansas City there was also Sew-Fro fabric stores .... I soooo wanted to work there but landed in fabric dept. of Montgomery Wards instead! I miss all those old stores ..... and old times with lots of tradition.

I saw one of those in the Joann's store just the other day, but they weren't using it. They were laying the fabric out and cutting with scissors. Perhaps they use the measuregraph for larger quantities?

I remember them too. I also thought the clerk did something so the device would make a nick/cut in the fabric at 'the right spot.

Perman's also had some sort of cable device with a container that would swoop somewhere with your money and swoop back with your change.

that makes perfect sense.

The JoAnn's in Murfreesboro still has one for the big rolls of home decor or special order. I bought some laminate and she used it to measure.

I was just thinking about them last week, wondering what they were called. Thanks for the memory. Also, when they clipped the edge with the machine, I remembering them tearing the fabric, rather than cutting it.

Well, I think it would be wonderfu if they would bring those machines back - We would probably have more accurate measuring done which would be a treat, especially at Joanns

I remember those!! Our local Jo-Ann's used to be Cloth World and Sew-Fro Fabrics. Thrifty's Five and Dime used to have fabric in So Cal.

Used one when I worked at Sew-Fro fabrics back in the early 70's.

They still use it in my JoAnn's in the Home Dec department.

Yes, it was back in the 60s. I worked at a local dollar store that sold fabric and when the polyester came out the customers made us use a yard stick due to the fabric streatching so bad and they were being cheated on the yardage they were paying for. The machine worked fine on cotton but not the fabric that streatched.