I am thinking of quilting a petticoat. My mom thinks that's insane, but it really seems doable, even for an inpatient girl like me.
The quilted petticoats in the Colonial Williamsburg book "
Costume Close-Up: Clothing Construction and Pattern, 1750-1790
" are constructed of 6 panels of fabric an average of 20-25 inches wide. Some of the quilting patterns are more complex than others - mine would be one of the simpler ones, with the hand quilting only about a foot deep at the hem. When you look at it this way, it doesn't seem like such a crazy thing.
'Course, never having done it, I really don't know. It's the not knowing that draws me to it. :-)
I found some sage-blue silk for one petticoat, to match the
yellow/blue stripe I bought several weeks ago, but the silk is not the right weave for a quilted petticoat. Those I have seen in various collections look to be made of satin, or something on the fairly soft-n-shiny side, so that is what I will be looking for next, in Hansa yellow. (They were also made of cotton, but I would rather pair silk/silk for this particular ensemble)
In the meantime, here are some inspiration quilted petticoats:
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| This one has the decorative hem, and a scalloped design up top, instead of diamonds |
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| Brooklyn Museum |
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Sacheverelle's Flickr page |
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| This one is from the 1840s, but the idea is the same. via
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| Augusta Auctions. Many petticoats depict natural elements, even little animals. I would like to incorporate a rattle snake into mine, as an homage to the Colonial flags featuring them. |
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| MFA. This one is quite simple and lovely. The top six, seven inches are left unquilted. This is satin. I'm going to blaspheme here and say that this diamond pattern could easily be done on the machine - that's my plan for the upper part of mine, with the lower motifs done by hand. |
There are oodles of quilted petticoats in various collections, especially paired with gowns. They were popular throughout the 18th century and well into the 19th. I noticed in my research (
https://pinterest.com/americanduchess/cw-1770-1780/) , for my Colonial Williamsburg costumes, that if a gown was paired with a mismatched petticoat, often times that petticoat was quilted. Quilted petticoats were also worn with jackets and undress, and were a utilitarian garment as well one of fashion.
So now to find the Hansa yellow satin... :-)
