wisconsin

I will change that to the 70s

penski

yes i remember years ago they sold fabric, had a grocery dept, tire dept, toy dept. i think those all faded out about 1974 or before

CRicart

I bought fabric at JC Penney into the 70's in PA

mummadee

Even Macy's (Bambergers then) sold fabric. My local dime store did too. Cotton fabric was 3 yds for a dollar. Does that tell you that I'm older than dirt?

Alice Woodhull

If your checked fabric is woven, it is gingham. If not, it is printed on and might have some polyester in it. I also remember Dan River gingham. That was the elite fabric for making pretty dresses. Didn't get that very often. I learned to match plaids making skirts out of them.

Quiltinggma-nc

When I first started to sew (many years ago) I bought many patterns and fabric from our local Penney's. They had Coats and Clark thread. Their fabric was nice quality. I agree with others in this thread that they stopped selling fabric in the late 60's or early 70's. We used have a Grants store in our area an they also used to sell fabric. It was great to have so many places close by that sold fabric. It is such a shame they don't sell like that anymore. Even the local Wal-Mart doesn't carry fabric anymore and their craft department has gotten so small.

grandme26

I remember buying fabric from Penney's to make clothes for my girls. Was just thinking about that a few weeks ago and wish they still sold fabrics. They had a nice selection for making clothes, patterns also.

Floralfab

I used to buy all of my fabric at JC Penney back in the 60's. They had great fabric--not as much as the quilt shops of today but enough for a project. They sold beautiful pillow case fabric. This would be a print with a border on one end so once you had your yardage you just had to sew top and side seam and turn back a hem on the border. I'm glad this subject was brought up because I had forgotten that they sold fabric. Oh, so did Newberry's and Grants sell fabric.

Carol J.

I sewed drapes for Penneys in WestBend Wis. in the 50's and bought fabric there for clothing. I made almost all our clothes and sewed for other people too. The sewing machine sat on the end of the kitchen table and we ate all our meals with it sitting there. Sears had fabric and our local Woolworth store did too. Penneys left town in the 60's or 70's and by then Ben Franklin came in and we bought from them.

Carol J.

mjorgenson

I bought my first material at Pennys for a wool skirt when I was 13 years old. I spent my babysitting money on it. My mother was furious because I spent so much (not by today's standards) and she thought I really couldn't sew. Made the skirt, the first of man,y in fact almost all my clothes through high school. The first material was in 1953.