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

Oh I remember those meters....they used to use it at the Ben Franklin Store where i purchased fabric...a few years ago..LOL

i've sewed a LOT over the years and cannot recall the actual puchasing of the fabric. however, i remember going with my mother to buy fabrics. some were at woolworth's and remember the knicking and ripping method. we lived in an old manufacturing district, so my mother shopped a lot at their mill end outlets. it was mind boggling. i miss living near those :)

I remember buying fabric for my high school sewing project. Seems to me it was from the drugstore, but I could be wrong about that; Woolworth's was right next door. The fabric I bought was a large yellow plaid for a dress -- something I wouldn't dream of buying for a dress now! Remember the measuring machine in your pic also, and the nicking of the fabric, and the ripping.

My 1st fabric came from Woolworths when I was a teenager & I remember the meters as well.

i worked at JAY'S in Patchogue New Yrk, we had one of those measureing machines

The Joann's I just went to had one of those machines for measuring and knicking yardage too. I was very surprised to see it there.

I remember these in the fabric stores too, when I was younger. Woolworths, JC Penny's and Sears for fabric shopping :D:D:D

J C Penney's had fabric and the measuring meter when I was young and it was located on the second level, like a mezzanine because you could look out over the first floor.

I remember the meters, wonder why they are no longer used. seems like they would be faster and more accurate than the new way of pulling the fabric off the bolt against the measure on the table.
We would buy fabric at Woolworths and Penneys. Sometinmes Mom would order from the Sears and Montgomery Wards (She called it Monkey Wards!) catalogs, but not often.

Yes! Mezzanine! Thank you! That’s the term I was looking for.

I wonder if the mezzanine was a sort of trade mark of JC Penney Stores?

CD in Oklahoma

I also remember those meters. My first recollection is shopping for material with my mother. She would spend what seemed like hours looking at fabric. I would spend my time with my brother sitting on bolts and playing hide and seek under and around all the fabric. She mostly shopped at Montgomery Wards, but she also shopped at Penneys, Ben Franklins and Woolworths. She was an excellent seemstress. I wish I would have taken a liking to sewing myself way back when.

We also had one called Cornets where you could get fabric. I do remember those machines!

I used those meters when I worked in the fabric dept of a big downtown department store in 1965. If I remember correctly I think bolts of fabric back then were only 36" wide?

OMG, I had completely forgotten about the measuring meter. Boy, does that bring back memories!! Ahhh...the good old days☺

We had a store called Adrian's in the town where I grew up in Mass. All kinds of fabrics. I also remember getting fabric at Zayre's (like a K-mart).

When I was in college there was a fabric store that was all overstock, etc. It was a mess but if you could find what you wanted the price was right. They specialized in seconds of Vera fabric and linens (the ones with the big flowers). This was back in the 1970's.

That's funny!! My Mom called M.W. Monkey Wards also. In fact, she probably still does.......

"Thanks for the Memories" Bob Hope

I have copies of the 1963 and 1964 Montgomery Ward Christmas Catalogs, but there isn’t any mention of fabric shown in either of them. Chances are pretty good, that even if Ward’s had tons of fabric back then, omitting it from the Christmas Catalog was probably intended. Ladies back then were probably much more interested in the CLOTHING for a Christmas present than fabric to make their own. LOL!

In an old Sears Summer Catalog from 1964, Sailcloth & Pique (all-cotton stretch fabric) was 97 cents per yard, Denim was $1.22, Duck was 74 cents, Poplin was 46 cents (39 cents, for 10 yards or more), and Knit-Look (non stretch) was 66 cents. All of them were 36-37 inches wide. The 42 inch wide Denim was 92 cents per yard, and the 44-inch Seersucker was 88 cents for the plain stripes and $1.13 for the prints. Dan River Bone-tones were 93 cents for the 36” wide. The 35” wide Ginghams were 58 cents per yard.

The 36” wide all-cotton Oxford Prints & Solids were 66 cents per yard, and the 36” wide 124-thread per square inch Percale Prints & Solids (closest thing to today’s Quilting Fabric?) was a thrifty 29 cents per yard (27 cents for any 10 yards or more).

CD in Oklahoma

When I was real young my mother bought all her fabric at a shop call Mettmans(?) in Northside in Cincinnati. We could walk to the store. Later I bought fabric and yarn at Woolworth's Newberry's, Kresges, and Grants in Cincinnati. Later, all the Singer stores had fabric and so did Sears and all the department stores. Then fabric stores came in like Piece Goods, Hancocks, and JoAnns and department stores closed their fabric departments. I also remember the Western Auto and Checkers Stores, I loved going to those stores with my father.

Our Penny's also had a mezzanine. I bought a lot of fabric there and at Perry's 5 & dime. We also had a Winn's Store which is now Hobby Lobby. I remember the little money thingys. They were so cool. Oh the good old days. I made most of my things because I was in HS and wanted to look like Twiggy. My dad would not allow really short skirts but where there's a will there's a way.

We had Cloth World and Hancocks when I was young. My aunt Helen worked at the Cloth world. I remember that it seemed like we were in the stores for hours (and maybe we were, sure doesn't seem like a long time to spend in a good fabric store now).

That's what I used when I worked at the Singer store in the Park City Mall in Lancaster, Pa, in 1976.

I remember those meters. I worked at a fabric store here for a while when the kids were small that had one. I don't remember the first time I bought fabric, but we went to fabric stores a LOT since my mother made all our clothes. There were several fabric stores where we live and mother would take us from store to store to find "just the right" fabrics.
D

I remember all of that. Woolworths was the first place I bought fabric, making dolls clothes when I was 10.

I bought fabric at Barnett Brothers in downtown Batesville when I was a kid. I remember the meter. I also got fabric at Ben Franklin's. We also made trips to Little Rock to purchase fabric for all our fall clothes.

The first place I bought fabric was JC Penney. Their fabric department was located in the basement. (The mezzanine was where the ladies' dept. was.) My mother didn't sew much, but I remember buying a length of yellow linen to make myself a dress when I was about 14. My mother chastised me for not buying green. It seemed that everything I owned at the time was green and I wanted something different. To this day I don't wear green!

My mother sewed about every day of her life and still does! She went to Murphy's 5&Dime store- I gazed into the big glass sections of CANDY!,while she fingered all the flat folds of fabric,holding them up and murmuring happily to herself. On family vacations down in VA we went to the Dan River outlet store. Back then, fabric bored me to tears, but, oh to see it now!!

Your Mom isn't/wasn't a Redhead, is/was she?

Speaking of green, my wife and I bought an old fabric shop that had been in operation by a nice lady for 30 years, and while going through the existing inventory, we both couldn’t help but notice how many things in the old inventory were GREEN! Fabrics, ribbon, trim, craft items, etc. We don’t know if she liked green, had customers that liked green, or that none of her customers liked green and she got stuck with it. LOL!

CD in Oklahoma

I can remember Woolworth's, and a place called House of Fabrics

I know those machines. A wal-mart had one in their stores for the fabric dept about 25 years ago. I forgot all about them. That was the last time I saw one in use.

I also remember Woolworths, Newberrys, Ben Franklin, Kress stores and TG&Ys. Gee, does that show my age? LOL

In Canada we had a lot of smalltown department stores (Chainways 5 and 10 and Stedmans). They always had bolts of fabric in the back corner or upstairs. It mostly consisted of plain broadcloth in every colour, some prints, gingham in several colours, flanelette (for diapers and receiving blankets) tea towelling and denim. If I wanted a larger choice, I could drive a little over an hour away to a larger town that had some mills that made woolens and towelling (Galt, Hespler and Preston Ontario). I spent all of my babysitting money on fabric and it was less than $1 a yard.

I worked in a dry goods store (as it was then called) when I was in high school. We had one of those meters. I just loved measuring and cutting the fabric for people. I sewed most of my clothes then and my discount really came in handy! It was in South St. Louis.

When I started sewing, we had a fabric store in Jackson, Ms called Kilgore's. Hancock Fabrics bought them out years later.

I also remember the meters. It wasn't that long ago they were still being used in Hancocks here.

Two places back in the early 70s used that device of measuring and nicking the fabric.
J.J. Newberry in Saugerties, NY and Big Scott in Kingston, NY. Both stores are gone now, but not forgotten.

There was a small fabric store in Saugerties as well called the Buttonhole. Such a quaint little place and I remember buying my first spool of Metrosene thread there.

Those were some good old days.

Blessings,
Sandi

I worked at Grant's and used the fabric meter there. I also had to cut window shades (no, not with the fabric meter). I think it's a good thing you kept yours!

I remember those meters and the description of Penney's must have described most of the stores at about that time.

No, my mom wasn't a redhead, she was a brunette. I am a redhead! LOL! :-D

If I say I remember these , then you'll know I'm no spring chicken! LOL I remember going upstairs to the sewing department at some store we had here when I was a kid. I loved just walking around and looking at the fabric.

My earliest memory of my Mom buying fabric was at JCPenney's. I loved sitting on the stools looking at the pattern books. Same thing my granddaughter does today! LOL!! In jr. high, we needed fabric for our sewing class and Mom went to the local 5&10 Drug store to get it.

After that, it was Kresges or Joann Fabrics til Walmart came along. I also shopped at Piece Goods til they went out of business.