Casgliadau Arlein

Welsh costume petticoat worn by Susanna Berrington Gruffydd Richards of Ty'r Eglwys, Llanofer [Llanover]. She was a harpist to Lady Llanofer, after her father Thomas Gruffydd. Full-length black woollen skirt with red stripes, red silk ribbon trimming at hem, and one applied pocket at upper right side.

Main part of petticoat iis made from one piece of woollen tabby-woven fabric, joined with one 58cm long vertical machine-stitched seam at centre back (black cellulosic thread, S-twist). Seam allowances protected from fraying with hand-sewn overcast stitches using same thread. 38cm long opening at upper centre back, turn-backs secured on both sides of slit by a facing strip of 2cm wide black wool twill tape which is machine-stitched to the reverse. Selvages at upper and lower edge (full width of woven fabric = 90.5cm).

Pleats & gathers: Upper edge pleated and gathered into a black waistband (see below): 14cm wide flat section at front, then three backward facing pleats which are machine-stitched in vertical seams of 26-35cm length, then six further, open pleats (the first of which still secured with a short vertical machine-stitched seam. The following 5.5cm of fabric are gathered and secured with strong black thread (S-twist, probably linen). The remainder of fabric (2.5-3cm wide sections adjoining both sides of the slit at centre back) is flat.

Waistband: Made from finely woven, bias-cut twill (width = 7.3cm), three sections machine-stitched together. Upper edge has piping of same fabric which also functions as an inner facing (width = 1cm), hand-stitched with a combination of thick and thin brown thread (both S-twist). This is made from one continuous strip, which, however stops short before reaching the centre back: 7cm on right and 5.5cm on left side. Lower edge joined onto main skirt section with a combination of black machine stitches and hand stitches using black and two types of brown thread.

Fastenings: Hook and eye fastening stitched onto lower corner of waistband at centre back. Upper right corner is fitted with hand-stitched button hole, but it is not clear where exactly on the corresponding upper left corner the (now missing) button would have once been attached. A 6cm long section along inner upper left edge (at centre back) is reinforced with a 1.4cm wide blue tabby-woven cotton tape which has been hand-stitched in place with overcast stitches using black thread. On the inner upper right, a 4.7cm long section beside the button hole has been reinforced with 1.2cm wide blue tabby-woven cotton tape (stitched on as above). 0.7cm in from the centre back opening (and parallel to it), c. 1.4 wide strips of the black twill fabric (same as main waist band) have been machine-stitched to the inside of the waistband. Pocket = 18.3 x 18.3cm wide. Made from piece of same woollen fabric as skirt; upper edge = selvage; machine-stitched.

Ribbon trim: Hem trimmed with red silk ribbon (unbalanced tabby, weft-wise ribs). On the outer side of hem, ribbon is stitch-secured with running stitches of brown cellulosic thread (S-twist). It is then folded back over to cover the stitches (leaving a turn-back of 0.2-0.4cm) and is stitched flat to the striped brown twill lining on the inner side of the hem with running stitches using red thread (Z-twist).

Lining: Waistband and lower part of skirt are lined with cellulosic 2/2 twill fabric (narrow white and black stripes [vertical] printed onto gold-brown; ). The waistband is fully lined with a single piece of this fabric, which is stitched to it with black machine stitches at the sides, and with hand-stitched running stitches using black and brown thread along the lower edge (the upper edge is covered by the piping/facing strip. A 15.2-17.2cm deep section of the lower edge of the skirt is lined; upper edge is turned back and machine stitched using black thread (remains of running stitches using brown thread [S-twist] indicate that upper edge was hand-stitched before being machine stitched); at hem, lining has a raw edge but is stitched to the black wool fabric with large running stitches in black cellulosic thread (S-twist). It is made up of three sections of 95, 93 and 35cm length.

Weave of wool fabric: Black tabby ground weave: warps = singles yarns, S-twist; wefts = singles yarns, Z-twist.
Stripe pattern: Pattern stripes are basket weave: each weft passes over two and under two warps; stripes are woven in groups of three (2cm wide), 7.5cm apart. Each group consist of 3 narrow red stripes edged in white. Each red stripe is woven from 8 weft yarns (width = 0.2cm). The sequence of each group consists of 8 red + 2 white wefts, 8 black wefts (width = 0.5cm; singles yarn, Z-twist), 2 white + 8 red + 2 white wefts, 8 black wefts, 2 white + 8 red wefts. Red wefts = 2-ply, S-twist, white wefts = singles yarns, Z-twist, two used as one.