I remember that as a child my mother took us to JCP to purchase fabric for new clothing. We lived in a small rural town, quite distant from any larger city. There were only a couple of stores that sold clothing and I think JCP was the only store in town that sold fabric at the time. I think some Sears stores also sold fabric in the 50's and 60's, but there was not one in our home town. Nice bit of history.

I well remember fabric at Pennys, Wards and Anthoney's. My grandmother sewed for me and would re-make clothing from some worn out dressed or coats of my mom and aunts. My grandfather was in the Navy when he was young and was a sail maker and taught my grandmother to sew. He made and quilted first baby quilt and I still have it. (I'm 78) He also did beautiful hair pin lace with a real hair pin. Of course they were longer than we see today.

In the old days you could get fabric in so many stores! I shopped alot for fabric at T G and Y..... Remember them? They had fabric and notions and precut quilt kits! Those were the days... and children did not look at a person like we were an alien from outer space when they found out you SEWED! OH my goodness, YOU SEW?????? Back then, most people did. I met a lady from the Philippines the other day who said that they learned to crochet and sew in school when they were about 8 years old. I learned as a child from my blessed Grandmother.

Thank you all! I love the memories in this thread! I'm almost 47, so old enough, but I remember my mother at the sewing machine in my very early childhood (I'm the 6th of 7 kids!), she was pretty much done with it by the time I have real memory. I don't ever remember going to get fabric with her - she probably did that while I was in school. I wish my mom would have shared sewing with me back then. In a way, though she is responsible for my quilting. She kept her Kenmore sewing machine all those years, and not long before she passed she brought it to me. It sat for many years because I didn't know what to do with it, and one day I decided to make a quilt = the rest is "history."

Thanks so much again for sharing your memories, this is so fun!

Kresges started K Mart. The K is for Kresge. In some ways I really miss the 5&10s

I am 68. When I was in high school, the only place we could purchase fabric in our small town was at Penny's. This was the late 50's, early 60's. I don't remember having such a thing as polyester yet. I used to shop there a lot because I was considered tall and they didn't make pants long enough in the legs to fit me so I had to make my own. Since then, they make pants longer. I think Penny's stopped selling fabric in the mid 70's.

I used to buy fabric at Penneys in Escanaba, MI when my kids were small. The store moved to the "Shopping Center" and no more fabric....I can just vision walking down the stairs and seeing all the bolts lined up.....and that little machine for measuring it too. It was a busy place. Ahh...sweet memories!

I well remember Penny's selling fabric. When I was a kid I was facinated with the meter? that they run the fabric through and it measured the fabric correctly. I also remember when Sears catalog used to put postage size samples of their fabric in catalog..yes I am 80 years old so remember where a lot of places sold fabric. When I moved to Georgia in 1982 even Belk's sold fabric. Sure miss all the places that you could buy fabric.

I worked in the Penneys store in the 50's in a small ND town. Wards had fabric but Penneys was the best quality and we (Mom and I) never bought fabric in Woolworths. The Penneys fabric dept was so bright and well lighted that the fabric was beautiful. I remember Mr. Penney coming to visit and every bolt had to be in a perfect line "so that the customers would get agood impression and know we had good quality dry goods." I made all of my clothes in high school and college. The employee discount sure helped.

All the big department stores sold fabric years ago. To bad they don't now.

Is it home dec. fabric for curtains or bed spreads?

Wow! All the memories here are fantastic! I remember getting fabric at Penney's. It was so fun to be allowed to go with Mom - we walked downtown because we had no car and the town was small enough we had no public transportation. Fabric was 36" wide at first, and patterns were sized differently. I remember the change in pattern sizing, and the huge deal it was to get 45" fabric. I thought the meter to measure fabric was fun - maybe that's why, when I worked for a fabric store later, I was thrilled to get to use one! (Small pleasures!) So many things have changed. What I wouldn't give to have my mom with me to do some sewing/quilting now!

Oh yes they did, and lots of it! So did Montgomery Ward & Sears; so did Beall's. They all discontinued their fabric departments in the late 60s-early 70s.

Oh, yes! I remember the measuring device!! I'm 58.

I lived in northwest Indiana back in the 70's and Penneys had fabric until the mid-70's.

This is bringing back memories. All the big stores had fabric and I think it was the late 70,s searly 80's that they stopped and if I am not mistaken that is about the time the independent fabric shops started to show up here and there and craft stores selling fabric. I remember those days that you could get fabric just about anywhere you went.

This is the first time I have ever posted here. Lets see how I do. :D
Now I am likely going to give away my age, LOL but I remember when PC Penny sold fabric. They sold all kinds and certainly didn't have the selections we have today for fabric, and yes lots less $'s. But also the cottons and calios were very hard to iron flat and without wrinkles. I loved to sew when I was in junior high and high school and use to take baby sitting money there and buy fabrics for dressed and skits and jackets.

Yes I do remember that was the way JC Penny measured their fabric and sometimes I will tear to see how straight things are then cut off the torn edge about a inch to get rid of the "bad section" And you almost have to rib the wide backing becase their are put on the bolt so poorly.

The only store that wasn't mentioned here was Winns. When my kids were small, in the early 70's, I bought fabric from Winns in El Paso, Texas, to make their clothes. We also had a TG&Y with fabric, and of course KMart. I don't know if Sears was still selling fabric then, because it was near downtown and I had no need to go that far any more.

Yes! I remember it well. Many of the large department stores had a fabric section including the high end store, Marshall Fields in Chicago, which is now owned by Daytons. It was great.

When large discount stores began to open, i.e, K-Mart, Venture etc. and women could get clothes at reasonable prices for their children, the art of sewing waned and the larger stores stopped selling fabric. I believe that it was also about that time that department stores changed the way their stores were set up. They eliminated counters and began to put in "cashier stations".

I got married in 1970, and used to go to my local JCP store for fabric to make my own clothes. That was waaay before we got a Joann's store here. I remember being upset that they took the fabric store out within a year or so, because there was no place in my town to buy fabric when I neede it for maternity clothes. For a few years, I had to travel to a larger town to buy fabric, then we got a Joann's and all was well.

Yep, I used to buy fabric at Pennys and at Sears. I actually learned to knit at classes I went to at Sears.

I, too, use to buy most of my clothing fabric at JC Penney's until sometime in late 1970's. That is when our northern Minnesota hometown store moved to different location from downtown to a mall that was built. Cotton is what they primarily had until a cotton shortage, which was about the time polyester was starting to be used. I noticed back then because the cost of fabric really went up!

aT LEAST 20 years ago. that would be my guess. I remember when they sold material.

In the 60's Redwood Falls, MN sold fabric in the Penney's, Montgomery Wards, Herberger's, and Ben Franklin. It was a town of 3-4000. Our little town of Morgan (900 people) We had a Gamble's Store that sold beautiful fabric and beautiful hats. It just had everything. The first new toys for Christmas came there. Memories.
Marilyn

Have a nice day ladies i have to get to work now!

What great memories, we bought our fabric from Sears, Penny's and Montgomery Ward. I also remember the fabric dept. for all of them was upstairs near linens. Had forgotten about the dept. stores, in the mid 60's a fabric store finally opened near us. Can't remember the name, but it was wonderful! Of course knits were the rage and cotton was only 50 cents - 2.00 a yard. My eyes used to burn something awful when we went shopping, all the chemicals in the knits! Thought it was amazing to have a store totally devoted to sewing! LOL

JCP did sell fabric, as did Montgomery wards and sears.
I worked there back in the 70's and bought it there, I'd guess it wasn't the quality we can buy now, as quilting fabric, but it had to ironed if you made clothing, so I'd guess it was pretty much cotton.

In case anyone is interested I have a "cash book" that my mother kept, starting with her honeymoon trip...She bought 6-1/2 yards of percale, yellow. for 12 cents a yard, probably to make curtains. Percale is 100% cotton, 5 yds of yellow print fabric for 13-1/2 cents a yard. The whole honeymoon which included camping, gas food, etc was $55.59. This was 1941...at the time my dad was teaching and paying his father back for a college loan and paid $10 a month...I was born in '42 and the hospital bill was $59.00.

Up until the 70's Penny's was a wonderful place to buy fabric and notions. I bought a great deal of my children's clothing fabric there. I do not remember when they quit, but my children were born in late 50's and early 60"s so that is what I am basing my timing on. They did sell a lot of the poly/cotton fabric. We were delighted to get out of having to iron all the clothes our families wore!

My Mom always purchased her fabric at Penny's. She did home sewing for other people who would shop at Penny's for there fabric. She would use the scraps of fabric to sew Barbie doll clothes and sell them to make money for our xmas gifts. We had the best dress dolls.

Yes JC Penny did sell fabric. They had a very nice fabric department. I bought all my fabric there. I was married in 1968 and remember buying fabric for several years after that. When our Penny's moved to the mall it stopped selling fabric. I was devistated. Their fabric was a staple in our home.

I remember being surprised to see fabric at Penney's in the early - mid 70's. What I recall is an older lady (probably about my age now) standing by saying, "Magic Mart sells fabric just as good as this and it doesn't cost this much money. Some of this stuff here costs $1.00 a yard!"

quote:I never knew Penney's had sold fabric - does anybody know when they stopped? quote]

Almost all of the big-name stores used to sell fabric. I remember as a teen traveling on the "El" to Chicago's downtown Loop to look for "material" for clothing. The famed Marshall Field's store, Sears, Montgomery Ward, Goldblatt's and others sold fabric. There were no fabric shops at all. I recall that some of the "better" fabric was as much as $3 to $5 a yard! One could buy some very nice cottons for as little as 50 cents a yard and the sales brought in a good crowd.

Sorry, that can't be correct. There was no Macy's in Chicago at that time. Macy's bought our Marshall Field's store less than 10 years ago and are now (sigh) in the Field's flagship store on State Street in the Loop. I don't think Macy's will ever achieve the status and esteem of our old Field's.

I remember ordering fabric from the catalogs - Sears, Penney's, Montgomery Ward. That was before JoAnne's and most other similar stores. Most department stores did have a fabric department. Selection was not anything like we have today.

Back in the 50's and 60's, it seems every department store sold fabric. Not sure when each store got out of it. Now you have to go to a craft store or LQS to buy locally.

This brought back great memories of when it was economical to make your own clothes. How things have changed. I even ordered diaper material from the catalog by the yard to make diapers for my first daughter, Brenda, born in 1962. My sister made a complete layette for Brenda as her senior home ec project--all with Penneys material.

Hard to believe now, but all the major department stores once sold fabric. Historical pictures of Macy's in NY show a HUGE fabric department. I remember the fabric department in Belk's from my childhood. I was sorry to see it go.

Penney's did sell fabric. At the store in Odessa, Texas, the fabric counter where they did the cutting was right in the middle of the store and it was always busy in the 1950's and 1960's. The fabric they sold was probably 100 percent cotton because in those days, there was no factory shrinkage control and my mother always did "preshrink" everything. We were so pleased when fabric was sold as "preshrunk."

Stay warm. FroggyinFrigidTexas