Quilted Petticoat thumbnail 1
Quilted Petticoat thumbnail 2
Not currently on display at the V&A

Quilted Petticoat

1740-1755 (made)
Artist/Maker
Unknown
Place of origin
Great Britain (made)

Woman’s petticoat of white silk satin, lined with white silk sarsenet. It is densely quilted in running stitch with white silk thread in a narrow horizontal border of geometric shapes around the hem, underneath a complex design of geometric and fan shapes and flowers. The space above is filled with a 1¾ inch (4.3 cm) square diamond pattern with two lines of stitching, ⅛-inch (2 mm) apart. The petticoat is made of 10 panels of silk and pleated to a yoke with pocket openings, to fit over very wide hoops. The pocket openings and hem are bound with ⅞-inch (2.1 cm) wide cream silk ribbon. The waist is bound with the same ribbon which forms the ties.

Object details

Categories
Europeana Fashion Project
Womenswear
Textiles
Object type
Quilted petticoat
Materials and techniques
silk; hand-woven, satin weave, hand-sewn, hand-quilted
Silk (Textile)
Hand Weaving
Satin Weave
Hand Sewing
Quilting
Brief description
Woman's petticoat, 1740-1755, British; white silk satin, quilted, geometric, fan shapes
Physical description
Woman’s petticoat of white silk satin, lined with white silk sarsenet. It is densely quilted in running stitch with white silk thread in a narrow horizontal border of geometric shapes around the hem, underneath a complex design of geometric and fan shapes and flowers. The space above is filled with a 1¾ inch (4.3 cm) square diamond pattern with two lines of stitching, ⅛-inch (2 mm) apart. The petticoat is made of 10 panels of silk and pleated to a yoke with pocket openings, to fit over very wide hoops. The pocket openings and hem are bound with ⅞-inch (2.1 cm) wide cream silk ribbon. The waist is bound with the same ribbon which forms the ties.
Dimensions
  • Waist to hem at centre front length: 91.0cm (approx)
  • Side to side at hem width: 207.5cm (approx)
  • Silk, selvedge to selvedge width: 41.5cm (approx)
Bibliographic references
  • Linda Baumgarten, 'The Layered Look, Design in Eighteenth-Century Quilted Petticoats', Dress, vol.34, 2007, pp.7-30, p.9, fig.2
  • Miller, Lesley Ellis, and Ana Cabrera Lafuente, with Claire Allen-Johnstone, eds. Silk: Fibre, Fabric and Fashion. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2021. ISBN 978-0-500-48065-6. This object features in the publication Silk: Fibre, Fabric and Fashion (2021)
Collection
Textiles and Fashion Collection
Accession number
8-1897

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O354304/quilted-petticoat-unknown/
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