Exhibit
31.1


Certification
of Chief Executive Officer


Pursuant
to Rule 13a-14(a) Under


The
Securities Exchange Act of 1934




I, Jane
F. Aggers, certify that:




1.
            I
      have reviewed this quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended May
      2, 2009 of Hancock Fabrics, Inc.;




2.
            Based
      on my knowledge, this report does not contain any untrue statement of a
      material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to make the
      statements made, in light of the circumstances under which such statements
      were made, not misleading with respect to the period covered by this
      report;




3.
            Based
      on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial information
      included in this report, fairly present in all material respects the
      financial condition, results of operations and cash flows of the
      registrant as of, and for, the periods presented in this
      report;




4.
            Our
      other certifying officer and I are responsible for establishing and
      maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Exchange Act
      Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) and internal control over financial
      reporting (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f)) for
      the registrant and we have:




a) designed
such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such disclosure controls and
procedures to be designed under our supervision, to ensure that material
information relating to us, including our consolidated subsidiaries, is made
known to us by others within those entities, particularly during the period in
which this report is being prepared;




b) designed
such internal control over financial reporting, or caused such internal control
over financial reporting to be designed under our supervision, to provide
reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the
preparation of financial statements for external reporting purposes in
accordance with generally accepted accounting principles;




c) evaluated
the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures and presented in
this report our conclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls
and procedures, as of the end of the period covered by this report based on such
evaluation; and




d) disclosed
in this report any change in the our internal control over financial reporting
that occurred during our most recent fiscal quarter that has materially
affected, or is reasonably likely to affect, our internal control over financial
reporting; and




5.
            Our
      other certifying officer and I have disclosed, based on our most recent
      evaluation of internal control over financial reporting, to our auditors
      and the audit committee of our board of
  directors:




a) all
significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design or operation of
internal control over financial reporting which are reasonably likely to
adversely affect our ability to record, process, summarize and report financial
information; and




b) any
fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or other employees who
have a significant role in our internal control over financial
reporting.




Date:  June
10, 2009




/s/ Jane F. AggersJane
      F. AggersPresident
      and Chief Executive
Officer