cashs_mom

There were a lot of independent fabric stores here thru the mid-80's. Then Joann and Hancock's started dominating the market and their quality slowly went down after the competition was gone. I miss those independent stores. I found some of the best fabrics there.

mommaB

I lived in NE Ohio as a kid and remember going with my mom to the basement of Newberry's Department Store in Painesville for fabric she used for our Easter outfit and school dresses. As a teenager, we went to a place in Ashtabula, large independent store whose name currently right on the tip of my tongue..ah yes...Brunner's. We would wander in there for hours. Again..school clothes. And upholstery fabric. And by then - grandkids clothes for my nieces and nephews! I remember buttons..Lots of buttons! They had little plastic bags and you picked out single buttons for shirts and skirts and coats...a couple cents each! Oh the good old days! What fond memories of my mom.

SillySusan

My very first job was at Woolworth's in the fabric department. I was sixteen years old... and earned 25 cents an hour! I got a raise and was told not to tell anyone because they (the other employees) would be jealous. My pay went up to 27 cents an hour! Wow!! Needless to say, it was a hundred years ago.

quiltingcandy

When I was growing up there was Ben Franklin's 5 and Dime, Woolworths, Newberry's, TG&Y, J.C. Penney, K-Mart when it first opened, House of Fabrics, and Hancock Fabrics. I believe Sears also sold fabric but we never went there because my dad didn't like Sears. I don't remember smaller stores, but that might be because my mom never drove and my dad was not one to go to fabric stores unless my mom wanted to go somewhere. I do remember once we went up to Vancouver B.C. in 1969 and there was a fabric department where I found some of the most wonderful wool fabric. Can't remember the store we were in but I always wanted to return.

bkay

I don't remember any independent fabric stores, except the Singer Store. They sold fabric there, but for some reason we never shopped there. In the same shopping center, there was a Penny's, A Morris Store (that might have been a local chain), and a W.T. Grant store. They all sold fabric, but I generally shopped at Penny's. They had a good selection of fabric, reasonable prices and all the major brands of patterns, McCalls, Simplicity, Butterick and Vogue if I remember correctly.

I, too, babysat for 50 cents per hour for money to spend on fabric. Then, when I was about 14, I got a summer job babysitting with the neighbor's kids. I cleaned the house, watched the kids and made their lunch. All they ever wanted was Macaroni and cheese. I think they paid me $30.00 a week. I had lots of money that summer. I was rich!

I learned to sew by making doll clothes when I still played with dolls. My mother had a black Singer 15-91 that I learned to sew on. (I have that machine still.) I made a good percentage of my clothes in both jr. high and high school.

That was a long time ago. Lots of things changed. Now all I sew are quilts and make a few repairs.

bkay

Peckish

House of Fabrics and Fabricland are what I remember as a child from the 70's. The choices were polyester, calico, and some of what I call "utility" fabrics such as muslin, twill, denim, etc.

My mom would take me and I must have quilting and sewing in my blood, because it was the only store that I did not get bored in. I loved to roam the aisles and pet all the fabrics.

mamagrande

I don't remember any independent stores, My mother did buy at what we call a dime store and at Woolworths. She used to crochet and those were the stores she went to. I remember going to the feed store and choosing two bags of the same fabric so she could make a dress for us. When I was a teen mid 60s I remember a man selling fabric from the trunk of his car. I remember to this day the fabrics that my dad bought for me to make Easter dress for my sisters and mother. Thinking back we were poor but I didn't know it then...until I got to high school and saw the other kids clothes. We had school clothes, shoes and home clothes, shoes.

Aurora

Every mall had a Singer store that sold fabric and every department store had a large fabric department. I shopped at Piece Goods Shops for years -- they had great sales.

ArtsyOne

I'm a total blank as to where I got my fabrics for that border print skirt, apron, and shirtwaist dress that we had to make in Home Ec class. Or the camel wool for that coat with the scalloped placket down the front for the buttons. There's an amnesia until the late 70's when I started quilting. It's sad to see the independent shops go.

WMUTeach

In my area there are about the same number of independent fabric shops now as in the past. The specific shops have changed but the total number is just about the same. What is more to the point....my mom and grandma and I would go to the department stores in town and purchase fabrics. These stores are all gone. I recall yearning to touch all of the pretty colors and to the lay the bolt on the big table. But the best, the very best was measuring the fabric with a strange little unit with a clock like devise that measured the fabric as it passed over the salvage edge. Then ka-chink! A metal handle was pushed and a cut was made in the fabric. Then rip and your fabric was folded neatly and you went home. I so wanted to grow up and use that machine. (I did work in a fabric shop for a couple of years but we did not have one of those old school measuring tool. )