Regency Petticoats

This entry will be a continuing work in progress. Our Jane Austen Festival is coming up in April and I'm seeing many writing about their new dresses. Below are some ideas on petticoats that you can make to wear underneath. Generally, you wear a shift, stays, petticoat and then the gown. You would not want your stays to show through the fine muslin fabrics.

If you wish to make a petticoat using a modern pattern the Sensibility regency patterns offer a petticoat option.

This petticoat is available for viewing through the Met Museum's online database.

Front

Back

Object NamePetticoatDateearly 19th centuryCultureAmericanMediumlinenDimensions[no dimensions available]Credit LineGift of Mrs. George Nichols, 1964Accession NumberC.I.64.26.3
Not on View.

INSCRIPTION

Written in ink on fabric label sewn at back: "petticoat 1820-1825 Mrs. B. Welles, Boston"

PROVENANCE

Worn by Mehetable Stoddard Sumner (Mrs. Benjamin Welles) (1784-1826) of Boston; Inherited by her granddaughter Miss Georgiana Welles Sargent (born 1858) of New York City; Gift of Emily Welles Robbins (Mrs. Harry Pelham Robbins) and the Hon. Sumner Welles, in memory of Georgiana Welles Sargent, to MFA 1949

CREDIT

Gift of Emily Welles Robbins (Mrs. Harry Pelham Robbins) and the Hon. Sumner Welles, in memory of Georgiana Welles Sargent