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Small quilted items such as bed jackets provided a touch of luxury, and were popular makes in the period between and after the two World Wars. The quilting on these two feature typical North Country designs.
Ivory bedjacket
The bed jacket has an ivory silk outer, with a pink cotton lining.
Feathers are typical quilting designs in the North Country region of England.
Close-up of Ivory bedjacket
Note the small, even quality of the quilting stitch
Close-up of feathered wreath
This design showing a pair of feathers is sometimes known as the Page Bank feathers.
1. Quilted Bed Jacket - Saltburn near Redcar.
This little quilted bed jacket
came from a family's estate auction some years ago at Saltburn near Redcar,
North Yorkshire. The
outer fabric is an ivory silk or artificial silk, and the lining is of pink
cotton.
The jacket has
been cut in a simple design with the sleeves and body cut as one piece - so only side seams are needed. It has been very
nicely quilted and finished - the front fastening is a single button and the
edges have been nicely handstitched. The quilting patterns are of curling feathers with two
pairs along the bottom of the front and on the reverse and one pair on each of the
sleeves.
Blue quilted Bed Jacket
The blue quilted bed jacket comes from Cumbria, in the North West of England.
Blue quilted Bed Jacket
It is made in cotton sateen, a popular fabric for wholecloth quilting in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as the slight sheen shows up the texture well.
Close up of quilting designs
Large feathers and daisies are arranged on the bed jacket front.
2. North Country Bed Jacket - Cumbria.
This unusual blue bed jacket with a cream lining was made by a sewing teacher called Mrs A Woods who lived in Cumbria. It dates from the Rural Industries Board era, although we don't know if Mrs Woods was involved in that scheme.
The jacket is well made and features North Country quilting designs with a tie closure. Large feathers and also daisies are used on the back, fronts and the sleeves and are stitched in a blue thread. The quilting is good, but not outstanding - but Mrs Woods may not have been solely a quilter, she probably taught all manner of embroidery and knitting skills. The edges are neatly finished with piping, and at the seams, the edges are bound before being sewn together.
Pippa Moss collected these two bed jackets, and has now kindly donated them to The Quilters' Guild Museum Collection.
For more photos of these two bedjackets visit Pippa's blog here http://welshquilts.blogspot.com/2014/11/quilted-bed-jacket-saltburn-near-redcar.html and here http://welshquilts.blogspot.com/2013/11/north-country-bed-jacket-rib.html
