WEST LEBANON — The news is as annoying as a jammed zipper.

Word of the Joann Fabric and Crafts store in West Lebanon closing evoked frustration from the Upper Valley sewing and crafts community on Thursday as longtime and loyal customers lamented that they would no longer have their favorite place to find just that color of thread, just that design of button or just that swath of fabric for their textile project.

“This is very sad for a lot of people,” said Sonia O’Banion, a Wilder seamstress. “I recommend a lot of my clients go to Joann’s for their regular mending, upholstery and quilting needs. But now they are going to end up paying more because they will have to travel farther to a fabric store to buy the things they need. They don’t like to buy online because they can’t match the texture of fabric they need.”

The Joann’s store in West Lebanon is one of the 500 out of 850 stores nationwide that the parent company Joann Fabric announced this week it is slated to close — including seven of its eight stores in New Hampshire and two of its three stores in Vermont — as the Ohio-based retailer struggles with its second bankruptcy filing in a year.

On Thursday, scores of Upper Valley Joann’s customers shared their sadness over the news of the West Lebanon store’s closing on Facebook, noting that they have relied upon it for decades as a convenient and affordable place that serves their sewing and crafting needs.

The origin of Joann in West Lebanon goes back more than half a century. First opening as Beaconway Fabrics in 1970, the business later became So-Fro Fabrics in 1983, then House of Fabrics, according to Valley News reports. The Joann chain bought House of Fabrics in 1998.

O’Banion said she’s been stopping in at Joann with her 80s-something aunt — a knitter who goes for the yarns — “at least once a week” to buy supplies for her seamstress business, such as threads, zippers or a “snap I don’t have in stock.”

She expects she will have to purchase a greater portion of her supplies online in the future.

“I’ll look in my inventory, write down the codes and order online,” she said.

Going to the fabric store in West Lebanon was a ritual when she was growing up in North Pomfret, said Gina Capossela, who began sewing her own clothes when she was 11 years old and now makes her own costumes for her Middle Eastern and American belly dance classes and performances.

“I need very unusual fabrics,” said Capossela, whose post on the Upper Valley Facebook page expressing disappointment at the closing of Joann received more than 134 comments in tribute to the store within hours. “Walmart and Michael’s doesn’t have what I need.”

Joann did not specify when it would be closing its doors. On Thursday, a sign on the door said the store would not be opening until 2 p.m. due to “call outs.”

Customers of Joann said they would likely be heading to Charlestown where new owners took over Frank’s Bargain Center and have expanded its fabric and sewing supply business.

Meagan Filion, who owns Frank’s Bargain Basement with her husband, said she did not realize at the time when they took over the business last June just how much of a need there was in the Upper Valley for a fabric and sewing supply business.

“It was like holy mackerel there’s this huge customer base reaching out to us with all their memories about Frank’s,” Filion said. “So we said let’s see what we can do with it, bring it into modern times, make it grow.”

Contact John Lippman at jlippman@vnews.com.