I grew up with Mom making most all of my clothes. I loved it! I never saw myself coming down the street, never worried about another girl in my class having the same outfit, AND whatever it was, it fit me. The only thing I didn't look forward to was trying on the outfit while it was being made. Mom was a firm believer in fit as you go" and my sister and I tried on "in progress" garments again, again and again. At times, we didn't feel a garment was new by the time it was completed because we had tried it on so many times! :-)
At that time, Mom (and, therefore me) called the cloth "material" as in "I'm going to buy material for your new dress." It wasn't called "fabric;" it was called "material."
I'm not sure when I switched terminology and began calling it "fabric." Perhaps it was when "fabric" stores were born. In my earlier days, material/fabric was purchased at places like J.C. Penny's, the Singer Sewing Store (where Mom bought her new Singer when I was about 6 years old), and other various department stores. As department stores began to give up their "sewing" sections, I seem to remember stores popping up that were dedicated to selling sewing supplies and fabric.
I still catch myself every now and then calling "fabric" "material." It's OK; I know what I'm talking about.
What about you? Do you remember material? Do you still use that terminology? Or is it just me?
I remember calling fabric, material! This was when I was learning to sew, and my sister and I often went to shop for material to make Granny dresses, which were often plaid cotton with gathers over the bust and set in sleeves. I now take sewing lessons with friends, and often ask, "Where did you get that material?" No one bats an eye, as we are all over 50.
ReplyDeleteWhere I lived in New York State we called it "material". I think I switched to "fabric" in my teens, when I realized I was shopping at a fabric store, not a material store. Now that I work at a fabric store, I wouldn't dream of calling it material!
ReplyDeleteMy mum didn't sew a great deal, but she did make us the odd piece of clothing, dolls clothes and curtains. Still much more than many people do today. She used to call it material and cotton (for thread). I grew up in Australia. I started calling it fabric a few years ago, probably when I started learning more about all the different textiles you could get. The material my mum sewed with was just cotton, so perhaps I feel that fabric encompasses a much wider spread of textiles. I do sometimes call something material if I feel it isn't strictly fabric...latex, neoprene...
ReplyDeleteIt's not just you, I called it material for many, many years and only recently switched my terminology. So I'm not offended if a person still calls it that.
ReplyDeleteI am 67 and always shopped for "material" for my garments. All of my cloths were hand made when I was growing up. I think I started using "fabric" just a few years ago. Probably as others have stated because there were "fabric" stores rather than "sewing departments" in the department stores.
ReplyDeleteYes it was material. My mother never sewed but I caught the bug as a teenager because my grandmother and aunts did. One even went to work for Simplicity Patterns right out of college. When I moved back to the Washington DC area after graduating UT Austin in 1974 all the nice department stores still had fabric departments and carried the fabric brands featured in Vogue and McCalls pattern magazines. I was knocking off Halston in those days esp for evening wear. The fabric stores carried European designer fabrics and women from the embassies and wives of high ranking officials and military would come in with their dressmakers in those days to select fabric for their outfits. When I first moved back, I lived for a while with a regal lady - a DAR/family friend, in her apartment on upper Massachusetts Ave. She and most of my friends were from the south, and everybody I knew who didn't have a dressmaker had an "alterations" lady who would come to their homes/apartments.
ReplyDeleteI usually said material, but then a co-worker said she cringes every time she hears someone say material, that fabric or cloth is what the pro's say. She's kind of persnickety. I say fabric a little more now. Oh, and I'd like to say THANK YOU for having the option of Name/Url we wordpress users have a HECK of time signing in with Open ID.
ReplyDeleteThough my Mom was a fabric buyer for a small department store, we still called it material at home. A girlfriend used to laugh at me because I also used the word "cloth". "Fabric" came later though I don't remember when the crossover took place. Perhaps after too much mocking laughter.
ReplyDeleteBarbara
I have always called it material until I read blogs. Even when I did a fashion design course (the only one at the time and very good) we called it material.
ReplyDeleteInteresting topic. I'm 66, been a sewist since I was 9. Taught by my grandma we would go shopping for 'material'. I can't recall exactly but I think I started saying 'fabric' rather than 'material' about 20 years ago.
ReplyDeleteLinda T, I grew up with the same terminology. It was never called fabric. I notice the change about 15 years ago, I think. We also had department like Marshall Field's (now Macy's) and Wieboldt's of Chicago. Sometimes I still say material.
ReplyDeleteC
My mother made most of my clothes too and I really had forgotten all about it but we called it material too. I don't even know when I made the change over to fabric. It was fun to read your post and remember the many sticky-pin try ons of my childhood.
ReplyDeleteMy mom made all of our clothes when I was growing up and we always called it material, too:)
ReplyDeleteI think I have always used both terms, but I do remember learning (somewhere in some forgotten decade) that it was more properly called fabric. Maybe context has some effect: when I go shopping, it's for fabric. When I'm getting ready to start a project, I might spread out the material on my cutting surface.
ReplyDeleteIn the 60s we went to Ms Williams shop at her house on Grawyler in Irving. Later Plymouth Park Sanger Harris had fabric and then a chain fabric store opened next to it. Later I discovered Pursleys and really miss it.
ReplyDeleteI use material as a general term; "I an looking for material for the dress." I use fabric for specifics; I found a cotton fabric for the dress." Much as I would shop for jewelry and buy a watch.
I grew up hearing "material" but the first time I heard someone say "fabric" instead, it resonated with me. To me, material could cover all kinds of sewing materials such as interfacing and binding tape. Fabric just sounds right to me.
ReplyDeleteIt was always "material" in my house growing up! It became "fabric" when I started taking classes in more formal settings.
ReplyDelete"material" You totally nailed something here. When did I start calling it fabric? Why was it called material? My mom (I am 52) definitely referred to it as material...probably still does. I am going to check!
ReplyDelete