Marilyn Philips

I am a depression baby and I have to believe that 28 cents a yard for fabric has to be from the 1930's or earlier unless that was a tremendous sale price. The patterns also appear to be ones that were popular during that era. In any case, congratulations on your great luck in obtaining all this good stuff. :thumbup: :thumbup:

butterflywing

in 1956 36" wide was still widely available. in the place where i shopped, that was the only width they sold. it was 99 cents a yard, but you could get "pre-cuts"
(what we call bolt ends) for 25 cents. my fist fabric was a floral for a beach bag with a matching sunbonnet.

KarenSimon

That wasn't too many years ago, was it? I worked in the notions/yarn/fabric dept of Woolworth's from 1967-1970. Downtown Denver which was the largest Woolworth's store in the company. I think most fabrics were around a dollar a yard. Those were the days...

bjdemir

I remember buying fabric at Penny's in Oregon City, Or back in the 50's. Their fabric department was on the mezanine. They used the machinces described above. I had totally forgotten about Penny's and the machines. Ben Franklin, Woolworths, Newberrys all had fabric. In the 50's we didn't have "fabric stores" as they are today. What memories!!!

martha jo

Penney's carried fabric until about 1976.

nannya54

Since the purple fabric is 3 yards, I don't think it was an end cut. The other 2 may have been but there was no pricing on those.

It's been so fun reading everyone's memories and ideas. Thank you all for the useful information and the stroll down memory lanes.

just_the_scraps_m'am

in the late '60's fabric was STILL 36" wide b/c i remember buying it @ that width!

Betty Ruth

Back in the late '60s, Winns (a 5 & dine) closed their store in a particular location so that they could move to a better location. I bought yards and yards for 10 and 25 cents per yard.
The 25 cent fabric was heavier. I used it to make pants for our daughter to wear to school. I think I bought all the 10 cent fabric they had and gave much of it to my mother to use to back quilts.

I don't remember the Penny's store in our town selling fabric when I was a child, but maybe they did. The Kress 5 & 10 did, but Lentz had a better grade of fabric. During WW II, there was no fabric of any kind available. I remember one day that my mother sent me by myself to town. with a bucket of eggs and a grocery list. After I had sold the eggs and purchased the groceries, I had a few cents left over. As I passed Lentz Department store, I saw a line of women waiting to buy fabric. They had just gotten in some dress fabric. I got in the line and selected my 3 yards. I believe that was all that each person was allowed. It seems that I paid a nickle a yard, but it could have been as much as 15 cents.
This was probably in the summer of 1944 before I turned 10 that fall.

Olivia's Grammy

As a child I don't remember buying anything at Penny's, it was for the rich folks. I do remember buying fabric at Woolworths and other "dime" stores. I made a bath robe out of 36" fabric a couple of years ago. Yes, the fabric was old, but the robe is holding up nicely. This was a fun thread reading everyone's memories.

Quilt Mom

I remember 36" fabric, and I started sewing in the early 60's...
The fabric was not available at fabric stores, but at the department store, and we found everything from fabric to coats to - well, you name it, the store seemed to have most everything but groceries.

I remember SoFro, Northwest Fabrics, and even those measuring machines... Those machines measured accurately, but by the time the fabric was torn, you lost some length. I measured, before and after, once. But I still used the machine, as the store I worked for required it.

What a wonderful walk down memory lane this thread has been! Thanks :-D