This is a design for the skirt and possibly part of the back of the bodice of a woman's jacket in the Saxony style. It is one of four designs for the jacket in a pattern book. It is from a pattern book for embroidery (about 1742) by Margaretha Helm (neé Mainberger) (born in 1659 in Deiningen, died in 1742 in Nuremberg, Germany). The technical information in the preface of the pattern book explains that these designs can be embroidered in long and short stitch, satin stitch encroaching or whitework on satin, taffeta, or linen. Long and short stitch may be worked in any direction and it is most commonly used in embroidery. Satin stitch encroaching is used for shading areas. It is a technique that consists of long and short stitches that are worked into the stitches in the previous rows thus giving the effect of blending tones of colour. Whitework is any embroidery in white thread on a white textile.

Helm worked in Nuremberg as an embroiderer, a teacher of embroidery, and a copperplate engraver who had her designs re-published by Christoph Weigel the Younger (1702-1777). The V&A has a series of pattern books for embroidery in three parts by Margaretha Helm of which this volume is Part II. It is entitled Fortgesetzter Kunst- und Fleiss-übender Nadel- auch Laden-Gewirck- Ergötzungen oder des neu-erfundenen Neh und Stick Buchs Anderer Theil or Further Delights of the Art and Industry of the practising Needle and Loom; or the newly invented Sewing and Embroidery Book Another part.