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Museum object · Clothing - Fashion and Historical

White cotton blouse with cut and drawn embroidery

early 20th century

Smithsonian NMAAHC collection

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Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A white cotton blouse with cut and drawn embroidery. The blouse has a round neckline and three quarter length set-in sleeves. It opens in the cetner front with six shell buttons and nine buttonholes. Four pin tucks are sewn to each side of the center front opening. Cut and drawn embroidery creating overcast bars is placed at the shoulder seams, armscyes, and both sides of the button plackets. Geometric patterning created with cut and drawn embroidery is applied to the bottom exterior of each sleeve. Twelve narrow pintucks are sewn to the center back of the blouse starting at the neckline. A vertical row of cut and drawn embroidery is placed on either side of the center back extending halfway down the back of the bodice in a geometric design. Four rows of pintucks framed by two rows of wider pintucks are sewn to the top of each shoulder.

Sources & collection details

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture — original record ↗

Source collection ↗

Catalog metadata · CC0 · Source checked 2026-10-13

Catalog reference: 2007.3.648

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