Quilted Petticoat

This remarkable artifact has many layers of history. The petticoat actually began as an elegant silk bed quilt with a wide border design of fat vases and scrolling flowers. Satin imported from China forms the face fabric of the bedcover. Sometime in the eighteenth century, perhaps in the succeeding generation, the bed quilt was cut down and the bottom third used to make a petticoat. Only the front of the petticoat would have been visible because the gown's overskirt would have camouflaged the sides and back where evidence of the original quilt's design remained.
The quilting design of this petticoat closely resembles bed quilts and petticoats made in the Philadelphia Quaker community. This petticoat probably descended in the family of the Quaker Fox family, particularly Joseph Mickle Fox.
Learn more at the link below.