Provided is an environmentally friendly process for producing a sheet-shaped material having both an elegant, napped appearance and a soft texture, which qualities have not been achieved concurrently, and also exhibiting good abrasion resistance. The process of the present invention for producing a sheet-shaped material includes the successive steps of (a) adding a polyvinyl alcohol having a degree of saponification of 98% or more and a degree of polymerization of 800 to 3,500 to a fibrous substrate in an amount of 0.1 to 50% by mass relative to the total mass of fibers in the fibrous substrate; (b) adding a waterborne polyurethane to the fibrous substrate with the added polyvinyl alcohol; and (c) removing the polyvinyl alcohol from the fibrous substrate with the added waterborne polyurethane.