Flounce

Several museums around Europe have examples of straw embroidered skirt panels and flounces from the 19th century. This 'eccentric' use of straw was probably never carried out extensively, but was a well-known type of decoration on fashionable dress for about 100 years, from about 1775 to the 1870s. The embroidery on these four organdie flounces is composed of flowers, leaves and stems embroidered in satin stich shading with red, green and mauve silk, while the straw ears, stalks and edge of the border are worked in satin stitch with straw splints.