Not sure when they stopped but did a lot of fashion fabrics to-wools I bought boxes at a estate sale and a lot was labeled with JC penny's gave away to a woman who did hook rugs with it. Didn't know about felting wool at the time!

Back in the day all department stores sold fabric. Penney's had a nice fabric department and I got lots of mine there.

Yes, Penney's used to sell lots of nice fabric. When I was a child, my mother bought ALL the fabric she used from Penney's. My aunt worked in the fabric department at the Great Falls, Montana Penney's. It was on the mezzanine next to bedding, kitchen & bath towels. The only other place I remember seeing fabric for sale as a kid was at the local Ben Franklin, & the quality was not durable enough for the clothing Mom made us. I wore mostly home-made dresses, & didn't have a coat from a store until I was 10. Mom would even make prom dresses with Penney's fabric from home-made tissue paper patterns after I'd show her what I wanted in a store. She could sew anything, & no one could tell our clothes weren't "ready made". When she taught me to sew, the fabric always came from Penney's. I continued to buy Penney's fabric for clothing when I was in college in the late 60's. I was sorry to see Penney's stop their fabric lines, sometime in the late 70's, I believe. BTW, I'm 64, so that may give you younger readers/quilters an idea of how long ago I was buying sewing material at a Penney's fabric department. LOL

I remember buying most of my fabric in the 60's at Penney's. My pinking shears is a Penney's shears. And my bandage scissors (I'm in the medical field) is also a Penney's brand, printed right on the scissors. I think that they stopped selling fabric when they changed the name from Penney's to J C Penney. Maybe early 70's?

I to bought all my fabric from Penny's for Home Ec.I graduated in 1972 and they were still selling fabric at that time . Not sure when they stopped selling it.

Wow, very interesting! Thank you!

I used to peruse the fabric in the Penney's catalog when I was a child, looking for what my next dress might be made of.

For Home Ec all of us would buy fabric from Penneys. I flunked Home Ec and hated sewing! Until quilts that is!

Yip -- that's where I got my fabric to make baby clothes and bassinette skirt when I was expecting my 1st child....she's now 36. :mrgreen:

In 1983 JCPenney announced a $1 billion program to give its stores facelifts and rearrange merchandise. Apparel, home furnishings, and leisure lines would be emphasized, and auto service, hard line appliances, paint, hardware, lawn and garden merchandise, and fabrics were phased out. Its big mass merchant competitors, Montgomery Ward and Sears, continued in these lines.

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/compa...y-History.html

Penney's fun facts. Apparently they had fabric until 1983.


Since gingham can be a blend I would assume the burn test would let you know if it is cotton or a fiber blend. Good luck.