Fabric piece with whitework embroidery

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 piece of fabric with open whitework embroidery in a paisley design. The embroidery is situated along the longest edge of the fabric fragment and features open holes in the fabric overcast with white embroidery thread. The holes are arranged in a series of concentric curved feather shapes. The first feather is oriented vertically, with the rest oriented horizontally and getting progressively smaller along the fabric edge. The larger shapes have leaf-shaped designs in the center and the smaller shapes have flowers in the center. The fabric edge next to the paisley design also features open whitework, with a scalloped cut and overcast edge along a line of open circular holes, also overcast in white thread. Some of the holes at the bottom of the cloth are stretched and torn. There are a few holes in other areas of the cloth and there are some small pieces torn off on the edges.

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