with Linda Baumgarten, Curator of Textiles, Emerita, Colonial Williamsburg, and Independent Scholar

Many 18th-century women wore warm, decorative skirts called “petticoats,” which were usually intended to be visible through the open front of the gown skirts. Although quilted petticoats were available as imported items, many American women hand quilted their own. A close study of the designs reveals that regional styles developed, so that a New England petticoat about 1750 was quilted in a design quite different from one made in Philadelphia about the same time. This lecture examines the quilted designs in detail, revealed through line drawings achieved using computer-assisted design technology.