Sunday 1 January 2017

Quilted Petticoats

I was given this old book for Christmas. It was first published in 1915 and this edition is 1948. Over the last 10 years I have fairly regularly made quilted petticoats / skirts using old quilts and my original inspiration was the quilted skirts worn by women connected with the fishing industry here on the north east coast of England. There are few references to quilted petticoats in any books so  I was interested to read in this book two storiesI did not have any knowledge of. In one chapter Webster tells of runaway slaves being identified by their petticoats and later on she talks of women from Holland who settled in the USA and who wore short quilted petticoats all the better to show off their high heels and coloured hose with scarlet "clockings" ( no I don't know what this means!). I would love to see some photographs of these transplanted Hollanders in their quilted skirts and fine stockings if anyone can lead me to any archive photographs.

Here are some photographs of some of my own quilted skirts. You may have seen them before and they are featured in my book "Textile Collage".









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