Homade vs. Stobalt

Growing up in the rural south most of us were poor. We had no idea of this because everybody else was too. Most of us wore homemade dresses. Simplicity Patterns were passed around like currency. This practice of southern thriftiness caused us all to match. There was always a kid or two who lived a more extravagant life and had labels in their dresses but they were not the norm.
  In my family, we wore homemade or store-bought hand-me-downs from my more well-to-do cousins. The process of making our homemade dresses started at our local grocery store. This store had a side room where every kind of "dry good" was sold. Bolts of fabric, rolls of ribbon and trim lined the walls along with huge metal cabinets with drawers and drawers of patterns. Your pattern was chosen by looking though heavy books with illustrated models. You chose your material (that means fabric in the south), trim, thread, buttons and zippers, then had your fabric cut by the grumpy wife of the store owner. Your supplies were put into a brown paper bag and the total price marked with a grease pencil on the outside of the bag. You then proceeded to the lone cash register in the front of the store to pay. Some folks would order their material from the Sears Roebuck or J.C. Penney catalog. We never did that, but the fabric section of the catalog was a favorite of mine.