The Good Old Days - Remembering Old Fabric Shops
06-26-2011, 05:44 AM
#71
Super Member
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Fort Worth, TX
Posts: 1,343
I don't remember the meter or the tearing, but my first project fabric in high school was bought at Mammoth Mart in MA. It was like Walmart. Got all my supplies there. When I moved to TX. I used to buy at Mott's...a five and dime store. Had to be careful as the quality wasn't always the best but the prices couldn't be beat.
06-26-2011, 05:49 AM
#72
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: North Central Texas
Posts: 378
My fond memories of purchasing fabric...I learned to sew, making my own clothes, at age nine. We shopped at a large "Joann's" and at the JC Penny's. When I married and moved to a small Texas town, there was a Mott's store in the downtown area that had fabric and yarn. I bought the fabric for my very first quilt there...a baby quilt to welcome our first. I really miss those old stores...wooden floors, warm cozy knooks where fabric was displayed, and such friendly, helpful people. Sometimes I wish I had a time machine to travel back to those days...if for nothing else, just the experience of purchasing fabric in such a store......sometimes we just don't know how good we had it back then!!
Thanks for the walk down memory lane
Thanks for the walk down memory lane
06-26-2011, 06:09 AM
#75
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 997
Originally Posted by ThayerRags
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
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
06-26-2011, 06:24 AM
#76
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 416
I was raised near Saint=Hubert street in Montreal which always had around 20 t0 30 stores as far as I can remember, For our Sunday dress, my mother used to bring me at Beauregard, neat rows of bolt behind the counter, you had to ask what you wanted and keep your fingers far from the fabric. I never saw a snail on the clerks face. There was also Mr Mestel., dressed in black, His store had no order, stacked from floor to ceiling, if you bought different fabrics, the trick was to pick only one at the time,go to the counter, ask the price, he didn't speak French, I didn't know a word of English, he would write "his" price on a piece of paper, show it discreetly to you , a frown on your face meant a better price, need something else you repeat the procedure. Sometimes you would get there, it was closed to the public, a limo with chauffeur was at the door, government wives were being served! His store was closed by the Fire Dept. Then there was Madame Pelletier, everything was
remnants that you picked out of large cardboard boxes and sold by the pound. I still love shopping there even if the stores changed owners,
remnants that you picked out of large cardboard boxes and sold by the pound. I still love shopping there even if the stores changed owners,
06-26-2011, 07:13 AM
#80
Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Bradenton, Florida
Posts: 105
I remeber those meters. I worked in 2 differet fabric stores. We stopped using them, cuz you could make them give more yardard than it would read ( to your friends). Of course, I neverrrrrrrrrrr did that!! The things we did when we were young(er)!
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